Programmatic Report to Nfwf
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COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP FOR TIGER CONSERVATION (CLTC) NAGARAHOLE FINAL REPORT July 2001 – June 2002 Submitted to SAVE THE TIGER FUND A project of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in partnership with EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION M.K. APPACHU Living Inspiration for Tribals Hunsur, Karnataka, India K.M. CHINNAPPA and T.S. GOPAL Nagarahole Wildlife Conservation Education Project Srimangala, Karnataka, India K. ULLAS KARANTH Wildlife Conservation Society Bangalore, India PRAVEEN BHARGAV Wildlife First Bangalore, India SANJAY GUBBI CENTRE FOR WILDLIFE STUDIES Centre for Wildlife Studies Bangalore, India CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 3 2. Acknowledgements 4 3. Project Leaders 5 4. Collaborators and other Institutional Partners 5 5. Project Need 6 6. Description of Activities (LIFT) 8 7. Goals/activities for the next year (LIFT) 11 9. Description of Activities (NAWICOED) 12 10. Goals/activities for the next year (NAWICOED) 13 FINAL REPORT TO STF REPORTING PERIOD – 1ST July 2001 to 30th June 2002 PROJECT TITLE: Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (CLTC) Nagarahole EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The precarious conservation status of the tiger has aroused global concern in recent years. Tigers are under threat from many factors include depletion of prey, direct killing and pressure on their habitat due to fragmentation and degradation of habitat quality. From 1998, the Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project (KTCP), supported by Save the Tiger Fund of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Exxon Mobil Corporation and other Wildlife Conservation Society donors, attempted to address the threats. The long term conservation process evolved under KTCP have seamlessly continued at Nagarahole National Park under the Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (CLTC) implemented from July 2001 in association with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), India program. Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (CLTC) aims to build upon the foundation laid by the earlier implemented Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project (KTCP). CLTC (Nagarahole) aims at the following • To motivate and support tribal people to accept incentive driven voluntary resettlement packages • To ensure economic and social security of tribal people who have volunteered and have been resettled outside the National Park • Minimizing human-wildlife conflict • Mobilise public support and build local conservation leadership for long-term conservation of the park The project has two components A.CLTC – Nagarahole – Voluntary resettlement executed by Living Inspiration for Tribals ((LIFT) and B.CLTC – Nagarahole - Community Education carried out by Nagarahole Wildlife Conservation Education Project (NAWICOED) The voluntary resettlement module was implemented by Living Inspiration for Tribals (LIFT) under the leadership of M.K.Apacchu and assisted by P.M.Muthanna. During the reporting period 45 new tribal families have voluntarily moved out of the national park under the government sponsored Beneficiary Oriented Scheme for Tribal Development (BOTD). This is in addition to the 250 families who had voluntarily shifted out during the previous years. The project team continued its efforts to ensure economic and social security of the tribal people who have voluntarily moved out of the national park. Co-ordinating with the forest and horticultural department the 2 Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation project team ensured supply of horticultural, fuel, fodder and mulch saplings. 24 tube wells with pumps were provided by the government due to the project team’s follow up. 74 tribal people participated in various income generation training programs including sheep rearing, bee keeping, poultry farming, tailoring and vermiculture. The project team assisted the tribal people in acquiring progressive farming techniques with the assistance from other rural development organisations. The project team supported 110 tribal children to secure admission in various schools. Seven students were assisted to undergo computer training and an adult education centre was opened in the resettlement area with material and training support from the project team. 360 tribal people have availed health care facilities provided by the project team and 5 immunization programs were conducted in which 54 infants and 95 children were immunized for Polio, Measles and Tuberculosis. Project team also assisted in animal husbandry, financial savings and acquiring necessary eligibility certificates, which enabled the tribal people to avail benefits under government- funded benefit schemes. The project team worked to minimize human-wildlife conflicts by persuading the forest department to provide Elephant Proof Trenches (EPT) all around the resettlement area. The conservation education module was implemented by Nagarahole Wildlife Conservation Education Project (NAWICOED) under the leadership of K.M.Chinnappa assisted by T.S.Gopal. The project team organised 7 nature camps, which were attended by 250 students and teachers and 25 slide talks reaching over 700 people. 10 contact programs of one-day duration were conducted for 350 rural youth residing around the national park. 25 public awareness programs on forest fires were conducted in three administrative districts which would benefit two more wildlife reserves other than Nagarahole. Nearly 35,000 students were reached in these efforts. The biography of K.M.Chinnappa, retired Range Warden of Nagarahole reserve and President of Wildlife First, is being broadcast over the radio reaching an audience of about 800,000 people. 2 issues of bi-annual magazine Nisarga were brought out during the reporting period. The project team were also involved in educating local community leaders, journalists and forest department officials about various conservation aspects. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (Nagarahole) was made possible with the funding support from Save the Tiger Fund of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation created in partnership with Exxon Mobil Corporation. The project team wishes to thank all the donors. The project team also wishes to thank the Chief Wildlife Warden, Reserve Warden, Nagarahole National Park and all other staff of the Karnataka Forest Department for their kind co-operation. 3 Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation PROJECT LEADERS: Project design and overall guidance: K.Ullas Karanth, Conservation Zoologist, Wildlife Conservation Society, New York Project Co-ordination : Praveen Bhargav, Wildlife First Sanjay Gubbi, Centre for Wildlife Studies Project Leaders : M.K.Apacchu, Nagarahole resettlement (LIFT) K.M.Chinnappa and TS Gopal, Nagarahole education and outreach (NAWICOED) Staff : P.M.Muthanna (Field Officer, three field/office assistants and one driver (LIFT): one driver (NAWICOED) COLLABORATORS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS : I. Wildlife Conservation Society, India Program II. Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore III. Wildlife First, Bangalore IV. Coorg Wildlife Society, Mercara V. Shri Manjunatheshwara Rural Development Project, Dharmasthala VI. Tarun Bharath Sangh, Bheekampura-Kishori, Rajasthan VII. Nature Conservation Guild, Chikmagalur VIII. Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation, Karkala PROJECT DURATION : Start date : July 01, 2001, End date : June 30 2002 PROJECT BUDGET : $ 30,000 4 Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation PROJECT NEED : Nagarahole National Park (also known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park; 644 sqkm area) comprises mainly of tropical moist and dry deciduous forest (Pascal J.P., Meher Homji, 1982). The Park falls into one of the high priority tiger conservation units and is included in level I Tiger Conservation Unit - TCU-55 by Wikramanayake et al. (1998). The Park has one of the highest densities of large mammals including tigers (Karanth & Sunquist 1992, 1995) in South India. One of the potential threats, for the long-term conservation of tigers in Nagarahole National Park is habitat fragmentation, due to 55 tribal settlements scattered inside the Park, totalling 1550 tribal families living in the interiors of the Park. The tribal groups were originally hunter-gatherers and have later switched to collecting non-timber forest products (NTFP) for commercial markets. The tribal lifestyle has integrated with the market economy over the years (Karanth et al, 1999). The tribal people are mostly poor, landless and socially dominated by other caste groups. Intentional and accidental forest fires to facilitate illegal NTFP collection, cattle grazing, etc. and due to the unregulated movement of people, transiting in and out of the Park are all long term threats to the quality of habitat. Hunting of small and large mammals through snares and traps laid in the forests by the tribal people is a major threat to prey population. As the tribal people do not possess any agricultural land for cultivation and with the gradual stoppage of timber extraction and NTFP collection, the tribal families are finding it difficult to generate cash incomes for their survival needs. Consequently, the tribal people have to find sources of income outside the forests in the neighbouring villages, which are 5 to 30 kilometers from the present settlements. No regular public transport amenities are available to the tribal settlements inside the park and the tribal people find it difficult to travel to the neighbouring villages/work places. Incidents of injuries and deaths due to attacks by elephant, bear, leopard and other wild animals during their transit by walk to the neighbouring villages are common. The Government is