Saving Bandhavgarh's Wild Tigers from Poachers

The monsoon rains have faded away leaving Bandhavgarh’s grasslands lush and green. The days are now mild and sunny but this won’t last long as the cold misty weather draws in around November-January. Before this, India will celebrate Diwali (the Festival of Lights) from 25 – 29 October, with the main celebrations on the night of the 27^th. This is always a challenging time for our poaching patrols as revellers let off paper lanterns into the night sky which can cause forest fires.

You magnificent support throughout the course of this project has helped us to achieve 90% of our fundraising total, with £8306 of £9588 (US$10871 of US$12550) raised. The challenges we will face over the coming months will be very different from during the monsoon rains because cold and early morning mists will play a big part in increasing the dangers for both the wild tigers and our patrollers. It seems strange to talk about cold weather in the jungles of central India, but the reality is that in the last four years, early morning and late night temperatures have plummeted to a testing 0°C (32°F) from daytime mild temperatures of around 27°C (81°F), which can be quite a challenge in itself. Study warm boots and heavy coats are not often seen in rural central India but become essential wear for our Anti-Poaching Patrollers over the next few months. Each year, we have to check the uniforms and see what we need to replace, our patrollers are very good at making their equipment last, by repairing tears and snags in their uniforms throughout the year, but sometimes they will need new. A donation of just £40 (US$52) can help us to provide these much needed essential equipment items for one patroller when they need them most https://goto.gg/28767. We all know how much difference a warm coat and sturdy shoes can make on a cold frosty morning….

During the Diwali festivities our patrollers will also need to be on high alert as revellers often wander into the forest to continue their partying. Albeit that their intent is to enjoy the festival, their actions can lead to all kinds of disturbance to the wildlife, and when they light campfires or paper lanterns these can lead to serious forest fires. Our night patrolling during the festivities is particularly important to eliminate both these risks and the risk that poachers could try to slip into the forest as revellers and whilst there lay traps and snares. Sometimes dealing with drunken revellers in the forest can present its own challenges, especially when they are in large groups. Thankfully, in most cases, the revellers just want to continue their partying and will move on or return to their villages when prompted to do so. Our patrollers are always keen to let them know about the potential consequences of their activities on the wildlife, the forest and their own safety.

The early morning mists, which are a feature of winter in Bandhavgarh, also present their own challenges for our patrollers. These mists can sometimes linger for a few hours around dawn, until the sun is high enough in the sky and the temperatures have risen sufficiently for them to clear. Patrolling at this time has heightened risks because our reduced visibility for both the patrollers and the langur monkeys who often sound the first alarm for an approaching predator such as a tiger or leopard. Extra care is also needed to ensure that our patrollers don’t inadvertently step into a trap or snare, set for wild animals, due to reduced visibility. The strong canes which we provide for our patrollers can prove vital during the early morning mists as they patrol through the lush vegetation. A donation of £20 (US$26) can help to provide a team of Anti-Poaching Patrollers with strong canes which they can use to check for traps and snares before they put their feet and legs at risk: https://goto.gg/28767. Tigers are crepuscular hunters, meaning that they tend to hunt at dawn and dusk, which means that during the early morning mists they can use the natural blanket as extra camouflage as the sneak up on their prey. Our patrollers also have to be extra vigilant at this time of increased tiger activity not to suddenly interrupt a tiger with its kill or become accidental prey. At this time, our patrol vehicles play a key role in ensuring that our patrollers can escape to safety if a tiger suddenly appears from the early morning mists. A donation of £38 (US$50) can provide fuel and transport (including an emergency escape) for a team of patrollers for one day:  https://goto.gg/28767.

Each year, the success of our anti-poaching patrols has ensured that more tiger cubs are surviving to adulthood and thus tiger numbers have increased year on year. Since we started our first of its kind buffer zone anti-poaching patrols on 01 July 2015, we have witnessed a 96% reduction in wild tiger deaths due to poaching and elimination of wild tiger deaths due to retaliatory poisonings, whilst wild tiger numbers have almost doubled in the same period. This success means more work though, as there are now more tigers to protect. Every month, we receive requests to increase our patrolling, but we can’t do this without your help. To meet this increased demand we would need to raise an extra £125 (US$168) each month in addition to the £802 (US$1075) we currently need. We set up a parallel project https://goto.gg/34704 to cover the cost of our patrolling in 2019/2020, where we are a long way short of our fundraising target and will focus our fundraising efforts over the next few months. If you are doing #Stoptober or #Movember and looking for a charity to support during your campaign, perhaps you would consider setting up a fundraiser page at: https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/fundraisers/start/?fundraiser.projids=34704 to help us to continue our vital patrolling throughout the winter months?

Finally, I would like to thank you all again for your continued amazing support and donations, which have not only enabled us to give wild tigers a wild future they have helped us to increase their numbers too. I know that many of you have Halloween (did you know that the UK spends £475 million and the USA spends US$7.5 billion annually on Halloween?) and Christmas to pay for in the coming weeks, so if you can’t donate large amounts right now, perhaps you could consider a small donation each month at: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/saving-bandhavgarhs-wild-tigers/?show=recurring, every little really does make a big difference for the wild tigers. I know that the wild tigers which you are helping us to keep safe can’t thank you themselves, so I am saying thank you on their behalf. Thank you also, on behalf of the patrollers we are keeping in work (and their families who have food on the table); and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing food/uniforms/equipment for our patrols and from the safety/education advice given by Deepak, Prahlad, Vidya, Ravi and the rest of our anti-poaching patrol team.

Links:

• Tigers4Ever Website
• Become a Tigers4Ever Fundraiser
• Buy a T-Shirt or Hoody & Help to Save Wild Tigers