Vacation Travel India

Tigers

Tiger sightings are very rare these days. The 2001-2 census by Project Tiger recorded only 3,642 tigers in India (over half of the world’s total), slightly up on 1997. A typical day’s kill on a hunt in the days of the British Raj would be close to 100. Now, dead tiger parts are sold clandestinely to Chinese pharmacists for use in what is, quite frankly, outright quackery. The poachers rarely use guns, especially since there is no longer a premium on intact pelts. Instead a carcass is wired to a few sticks of dynamite, and a curious tiger comes along and triggers an explosion. Often they simply poison the tiger’s own kill, or lay snares. Poorly paid game wardens are no match for the organized poachers working in remote game parks.

A formidable hunter, the tiger usually takes its quarry from behind, laying its chest on the back of the animal, grabbing the neck in its canines, sometimes bracing a forearm on the forelimb of the quarry and trying to pull it down by their combined weight. The tiger’s sharp retractile claws also play a significant role in capturing and holding on to its quarry. A swipe of the forearm is sometimes used to stop a fleeing animal or to kill very small prey like monkey or peafowl. Depending on the size of its kill, a tiger may feed on it for four to five days. By the end, it will have eaten all the flesh, small bones, skin and hair.

The tiger’s choice of quarry is not chosen by species. It is, rather, by size; the bigger the better. With very large prey, such as the gaur or the buffalo, a tiger will generally go for the sub-adults.

Dominant males may occupy very extensive territories, as large as 50 to 100 sq km (20 to 40 sq miles). Up to three or even five females may occupy mutually exclusive sub-territories within a large male territory. The females in such an organization are assured of food supply for themselves and their offspring and, in return, owe allegiance to the territorial male.

The best bet for glimpsing a tiger in the wild is to visit an Indian sanctuary before it is too late. At Kaziranga (Assam), Bandhavgarh or Kanha (Madhya Pradesh), Dudhwa or Corbett (Uttar Pradesh) or Bandipur (Karnataka) odds are more favourable than at parks where poachers penetrate. Even during the dry season, when thirsty animals slow down and are visible against the parched leaves, luck is still a key ingredient. Dusk or dawn is a likely hour. Jeeps, elephants, and even dugout canoes carry visitors deep into the bush, and few will be disappointed by the experience, even if they only see the pug marks of big predators.

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Big beasts

The one-horned Indian rhinoceros keeps mainly to the northeastern woods around Kaziranga in Assam, though a number have been reintroduced to Dudhwa park in Uttar Pradesh, nudging India’s total of rhinos to around 1,700. They stand about 1.6 metres (5.5 ft) at the shoulder and weigh around 1,820 kg (4,000 lbs). Adult males are larger than females, with horns that are usually thicker at the base and often broken or split at the tip (the horn of the female is usually slender and unbroken). Adult females may also be accompanied by calves.

Floodplain grassland interspersed with marsh, swamp and lake, and the adjoining riverine forest, are their favored habitat. Rhinos prefer to feed on short grasses and seek shelter in thick stands of tall grass, sometimes 6-8 metres (20-25 ft) high.

Elephants make large demands on their environment; an adult animal consumes something like 200 kg (450 lbs) of green fodder a day, probably wasting an equal amount in the process. The elephant has few natural enemies, calves are jealously guarded by their mothers and tigers seldom have the opportunity to take them. The elephant, therefore, is an apex species and an excellent indicator of the health of their habitat. A habitat that is good for the elephant is also good for its associate species, such as the sambar deer, spotted deer and barking deer, which in their turn - as prey species - support predators like the tiger or the leopard.

Rhinos are usually viewed from elephant back. These mounts are domestic elephants. Wild tuskers found in the jungles are feared, with good reason. Some may roam close to villages, developing a taste for alcohol after drinking the contents of a still. Others stampede through villages, mowing down everything in their path - usually after being provoked by villagers defending their crops. Yet spying a herd of wild elephants tearing calmly through the shrubbery is a definite thrill. Such enormous beasts can move with surprising silence.

There are an estimated 9,000 wild elephants in India, with thousands more working at temples, logging camps, game parks, or hired out for weddings. Periyar, in Kerala, is the best place to view elephants in the wild. Parks in West Bengal and Assam are also good bets.

Game tourism

Indian game viewing began on a grand scale in the 1950s, and even today the arrangements sometimes resemble gentlemen’s shooting parties of that era. Creature comforts are not ignored in the wild, and some tents are quite luxurious, though many forest houses are rustic, and safari suits are now worn mostly by chauffeurs for the middle class.

Wild animal-watching in India takes patience. Many of the most spectacular beasts hide in the shadows, lone predators waiting for their opportunity. Game reserves are not easily accessible (except for Ranthambore in Rajasthan, near a railway connection). A few parks require special permits in advance, usually for a minimum group of four. In the north east, where shy pandas and macaques hide, militants and Adivasis often do, too. The government limits visits near strategic borders or guerrilla areas. It is always wise to check before setting out, since situations change without warning. At any sanctuary, dress in sensible camouflage and keep quiet; the creatures are easily frightened. Yet with almost 350 species of mammal, a couple of thousand types of bird, and at least 30,000 kinds of insect (more than you want to know personally), India provides an unmatched range that justifies several trips.

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esides an Everest tour, one of the most exciting adventures in India is to explore its wildlife.

Animals are never far away in India. Even common house pests could include such exotics as a red-rumped monkey or a mongoose, besides the geckoes flexing on the wall or a scorpion hiding inside a shoe. Mynah birds and an occasional cobra in the garden come as no surprise. Camels and elephants wander in the street traffic and humped cattle sometimes outnumber the vehicles on the road. Water buffalo loll beside the dhobi ghats, where laundry is done. Huge birds of prey - vultures or pariah kites - spiral overhead.

Lions, tigers and bears - savage and shy - inhabit South Asia from Himalayan cloud forests to desert scrub. Land-clearing has encroached on much of the former hunting grounds, and without the game reserves and sanctuaries many more might disappear. There’s no chance of spotting a cheetah now; the last of these died in 1994. The government of India continues to permit the destruction of big cats which are proven man-eaters, and so-called “cattle lifters” are often gunned down for revenge as well. These can be leopards, panthers, or tigers, though snow leopards and the daintier clouded leopard are often spared.

Hundreds of stocky Asiatic lions prowl the Gir Forest Reserve in Gujarat, the only place in the world where they thrive. Unlike African lions, these cats don’t have much mane, but carry most of their shaggy hair on the tip of their tails and elbows. In the 1990s some young males strayed outside the park and were neutered by rangers, who were anxious that local cattleherders shouldn’t start shooting the lions if they dared put a paw outside their sanctuary. Striped hyenas feed on the lions’ leftovers and there are more panthers visible in the Gir - pronounced “gear”, not “Grrrr” - than at any other Indian park.

Bears are more aloof. Himalayan brown bears are heavy-set and larger than their black cousins, who live below the tree line on Himalayan slopes. Sloth bears, found over much of India, are mostly nocturnal. All three varieties can climb trees and swim if put to the test. The sloth bear grunts with pleasure or anger, and digs for termites and other grubs. It gobbles bees, but prefers honeycomb or sweet fruits and berries. The bears are hunted for their gall bladders, sold for Chinese fertility medicine. Miserable sloth bears can be seen in cities, shuffling along in chains and a muzzle, and earning a few rupees for their captors. In the forests of the northeast red pandas, resembling slim, auburn raccoons, are found.

According to a report by the TERI organization for the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests, the country “holds the dubious honor of suffering from poverty-induced environmental degradation at the same time as pollution from affluence and a rapidly growing industrial sector”.

New Delhi has more than 4 million vehicles, with 200,000 added each year. The air had become so thick with flying ash and particulate pollutants that the city’s administration forced all public transport (including autos) to convert to CNG (compressed natural gas), as well as building a new metro system.

Steady population growth puts pressure on resources, and Indians cope with polluted air and an alarmingly diminishing water table. The sacred rivers teem with bacteria. Development schemes and environmental control measures are often at odds, and legislation is difficult to enforce.

Timber, paper and mining industries have depleted the forest cover. The Chipko activists, tree-hugging Adivasi women who put themselves in the way of saws and axes to stop the loss of their forests in the Garwal Himalayas in 1973, inspired green protests across the planet. The forest protection measures that followed may now be bearing fruit. Between 1999 and 2006 forest cover grew from 19.39 to 20.64 percent of the country.

The damming of rivers and flooding of valleys continues to be a focus for eco-activists, who oppose the dam projects on the Narmada river, the dam at Tehri in Uttaranchal, a region prone to earthquakes, as well as the Sardar Sarovar project in Maharashtra. Tourism has also taken its toll. Many trekking routes in the Himalayas are vertical rubbish heaps, particularly from plastic bottles used for water. In Ladakh local projects have been set up to provide clean, boiled water to visitors. Ancient marble monuments such as the Taj Mahal show erosion due to chemical emissions.

Unenforced regulations in industry and official and management callousness have led to environmental disasters. In 1984 more than 3,500 People were killed in their sleep when toxic methyl ico-cynate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in wopal, Madhya Pradesh. The first fire in the Jharia coalfields in Bihar started in 1916 and there are currently around 70 still burning, causing asthma, cnronic bronchitis and skin and lung diseases. Mercury poisoning is becoming a huge problem. Dumping of the highly toxic chemical by multinational companies such as Unilever (which makes thermometers for the US market in Kodaikanal, Kerala) causes birth defects, tumors and damage to the central nervous system, lungs and kidneys. The North Koel river in Bihar has up to 700 times above the permissible level of mercury.

Soft drinks multinationals are also culpable. The Coca-Cola plant at Plachimada, Kerala, was using up to 1.5 million litres of ground water daily until it was banned from doing so by the State Government. It has also been dumping toxic waste, high in heavy metals, on farmland. In 2003, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola were found to have “shocking” levels of pesticides in their bottled drinks.

Fightback is occurring: the Narmada Bachao Andolan are particularly active as is the more radical Mumbai Resistance. And when the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau, riddled with asbestos and due to be broken up in Alang’s shipyard in 2006, was recalled to France in a wave of protests worldwide, many saw this as an opportunity for India to improve conditions for its shipyard workers.

On a more practical level, India practices recycling on many levels - ragpickers sort rubbish so efficiently that plastic bags, paper and wire are sold off by weight - providing social institutions from which sustainable systems can develop.

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