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, ,

K.M. CHINNAPPA and T.S. GOPAL Nagarahole Wildlife Conservation Education Project Srimangala, Karnataka, India

K. ULLAS KARANTH Wildlife Conservation Society , 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

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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.

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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

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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 unable to provide basic amenities like health, education, power and water facilities, as law does not allow provision of such facilities within the National Park. The demographic growth of the tribal population has resulted in conflicts between the interests of the National Park and socio-economic welfare of tribal people.

Without any means of earning inside the park, 51 tribal people living inside the Park volunteered to resettle outside the park. In 1991 a memorandum was submitted to the Forest Minister of Karnataka by the heads of the tribal families, that agricultural land, housing, electricity, health care and other social amenities be provided to them outside Nagarahole National Park. The Chief Wildlife Warden availed assistance from the "Beneficiary Oriented scheme for Tribal Development (BOTD), under the Directorate of Project Tiger, Government of India. Under the BOTD scheme, each tribal family willing to relocate got a grant of 2 hectares of Forest/Revenue land and one lakh rupees ($ 2380) for housing, land development etc. In addition other State Government schemes for water, electricity, education etc. were dovetailed along with the GOI package.

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This pilot voluntary resettlement project was successfully implemented with the active co-ordination of LIFT in 1999, with support from Wildlife Conservation Society under Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project (Save the tiger Fund - National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and ExxonMobil). This effort has inspired and built confidence amongst tribal people living in the interior of the Park to accept such sensible resettlement packages. A second batch of 155 tribal families volunteered to accept a similar package and have been successfully resettled between March – June 2000.

The main objective of the voluntary resettlement project is to address the critical issue of permanently resolving human wildlife conflict on ground by ensuring proper social justice to the tribal people while consolidating and improving quality of tiger habitats.

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DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES: July 2001 – June 2002

A. CLTC – Nagarahole – Voluntary resettlement (LIFT);

1. To motivate and support tribal people to accept incentive driven voluntary resettlement packages

45 tribal families who were motivated to opt for resettlement voluntarily moved out of the reserve during the reporting period. Under the Beneficiary Oriented Scheme for Tribal Development (BOTD) of Government of India, each family has been provided 2 hectares of land, a house and other amenities. Thus a total of 250 tribal families have voluntarily moved out of Nagarahole National Park.

2. To ensure economic and social security of tribal people who have volunteered and have been resettled outside the National Park

During the reporting period, the Project leader continued monitoring the implementation of the resettlement project. Sixteen formal meetings were held with the park warden in addition to continuous liaison with the Assistant wildlife warden, Range warden and field staff in charge of the voluntary resettlement area. Proper and timely delivery of agricultural support by Forest department that included technical advise on land development, supply of quality seeds and fertilizers has ensured that the 250 resettled tribal families have successfully raised food crops - Ragi, a millet, and other commercial crops like cotton, oilseeds and pulses on the land allotted to them for cultivation. With a good harvest in October 2001, each family has also managed to stock up sufficient quantities of the millet harvested for their food requirements.

All the 200 families, who have resettled in the First & Second phase, were provided with saplings of several species of fruit plants under the horticultural package from Government of India's Beneficiary Oriented Scheme for Tribal Development. The project leader and Field officer monitored the distribution of the saplings. These horticultural crops will supplement their cash incomes in long run. Co-ordination with the Forest and Horticulture departments also resulted in the supply of 650 saplings of tree species like Teak, Silver oak, Acacia and 1,470 Coconut saplings. In addition, 2,000 Tapioca, and 1,500 Glyrecidia saplings have also been provided under the project. These will provide some fuel wood, small timber mulch and tree cover.

The Project leader continued to actively work with the democratically elected representative of the area who also heads a government committee, which has sanctioned 24 tube wells and pumps with power at a cost of $50,000 for irrigation of croplands. This makes it a total of 34 tube wells, including the 10 that are already in place.

During the reporting period, the Project leader convinced the Forest department on the need to provide temporary/contractual employment to one member from each family. This has generated additional employment and cash incomes to the resettled families.

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• Training support

In association with the Karnataka Forest Department, the Field officer organized a one-day training workshop on sheep rearing in which 48 members of the community visited a well-known sheep-breeding farm and interacted with experts. 20 members of the community also visited a poultry farm to acquire skills in poultry management.

Two tailoring training centres have been established at Nagapura, by the Forest department. The Field Officer coordinated appointment of an Instructor and provided necessary materials such as fabrics, buttons and other accessories.

Two tribal people participated in a one-week training program in bee keeping. Bee keeping boxes were also provided to them under the project.

The project team co-ordinated with other local rural development organisations to train the tribal people on progressive farming techniques. Fifteen progressive tribal people including five women were supported to participate in a local agricultural exhibition. CLTC in co-ordination with Khadi Board, a state government agency facilitated the participation of four tribal people in a workshop on vermiculture.

• Educational support

The Project leader and Field officer continued to monitor the educational progress of the tribal children whose admissions in nearby schools were facilitated in June 2000. This ensured that there were no dropouts. Several teaching aids like maps, science charts, mathematical tables were also provided to the schools. A total of 110 tribal children have secured admission in various schools around the resettlement area.

Admission for one tribal student in a computer-training course was facilitated under the project. Six tribal students were enabled to participate in a summer camp where classes in computers, personality development, dance and painting were organized.

The Adult Education centre started functioning at the resettlement site Nagapura. LIFT identified a tribal lady and provided her requisite training for this purpose. LIFT also provided a black board, notebooks and other stationery. Ten tribal people participated in this program.

The field officer also held meetings with the educational institutions to continue education support to tribal students from the rehabilitated hamlets.

• Medical care

In order to ensure basic healthcare facilities to the tribal people, a ‘Medical Camp’ was arranged at tribal resettlement area in association with the Tribal Health Unit, Government Hospital, Hunsur. 233 tribal people received treatment along with free medicines provided under the project. In addition, 127 tribal people were enabled to avail treatment at Government Hospitals in Hunsur and . Five Immunization programs for infants were conducted, again with the help of Tribal Health Unit,

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Hunsur, in which 54 infants and 95 Children were immunized for Polio, Measles and Tuberculosis. During four instances of medical emergency, the project team provided transportation and other support to tribal people which ensured timely hospitalisation and medical care.

• Animal husbandry support

Under the project, one cattle vaccination camp was arranged where 18 cattle from the hamlets were vaccinated. CLTC provided free medicines for the vaccination camp.

The project team also assisted the tribal people in obtaining insurance to cover the death of livestock.

3. Minimizing human-wildlife conflict Based on consistent follow up under the project, the Karnataka Forest department has completed the Elephant Proof Trench (EPT) all around the resettlement area- Nagapura. This would ensure protection to the crops from elephants straying out of the Reserve and by the domestic livestock.

The project organised the post mortem of one animal, which was killed by a carnivore and this facilitated speedy processing of the compensation claim.

Exploratory activities The Field officer • facilitated opening of 125 jointly operated (family) bank accounts for resettled tribal people in a nearby banks recognized by the federal government, to provide banking facilities to the tribal people and encourage savings.

• helped 22 Tribal families in getting necessary eligibility certificates, which enabled them to get agriculture implements and other benefits from the Government Tribal Development Centre.

• also co-ordinated a field visit of tribal people from Kudremukh reserve to demonstrate the well implemented voluntary resettlement project of Nagarahole.

• motivated tribal women to head two anti-liquor campaigns in the tribal hamlets and also against opening up of new arrack and toddy (local liquor) shops around the resettlement area. Due to the intervention of the project team, the police evicted the illegal arrack shops around the resettlement areas.

During the visits of important functionaries of the government and media, the Project leader along with leaders from the resettled families presented the benefits that have accrued, with the tribal people themselves explaining how their quality of life had substantially improved. The visitors included: Jaideep Hardikar, Fellow, K.K. Birla Foundation, New Delhi, Harinder Singh Khalsa, Member (Schedule Caste /Scheduled Tribes) commission, New Delhi, Micheal Peel, Fellow from Winston Churchill Memorial Foundation, London, Naveen K. Rai, Senior Sociologist, World Bank, New

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York, a team of journalists from and Chikmagalur and a documentary filming unit from the National Films Division, Mumbai.

Project team constantly interacted with elected representatives including the minister for tribal welfare and local legislators to leverage government funded welfare schemes for the rehabilitated tribal people.

Project administration

An office, which was established under the Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project, is being maintained at Hunsur with a telephone and other facilities, 12 kilometers from Nagapura - the resettlement site.

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GOALS/ ACTIVITIES FOR THE NEXT YEAR

1. Continue monitoring the progress of the resettlement project through liaison with the State Forest department, government agencies and working with the resettled community.

2. Facilitate the early implementation of Phase III of the resettlement project.

3. Ensure continued agricultural support from various government agencies and provide educational support to tribal families.

4. Facilitate basic healthcare facilities to the resettled families.

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CLTC - Nagarahole - Community Education (NAWICOED)

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES 1. Mobilise public support and build local conservation leadership for long-term conservation of the park

During the reporting period seven Nature education camps for students from schools in were conducted. A total of 250 students and teachers participated in these camps.

25 slide talks were organized for members of local youth associations, local journalists, students of the local Forestry College and teachers around Nagarahole reserve in Kodagu district. Around 4,200 people were reached under this effort.

Ten contact programs each of one-day duration were conduced for rural youth around Nagarahole reserve to sensitize them on local conservation issues. Around 350 people participated in these programs.

Public awareness programs on forest fires have been conducted in the districts of Kodagu, Mysore and Chamarajanagar, which cover Nagarahole, Bandipur and Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple reserves. 25 such campaigns have been organised reaching about 35,000 people. Pamphlets, which describe the ill effects of forest fire, were also distributed.

K.M Chinnappa's three-volume biography - "Kaadinolagondu Jeeva" (A life in the forest) is being broadcast over the radio station in Kodagu district, reaching an audience of about 800, 000 people.

One field visit to the Nagarahole Resettlement area - Nagapura was organized for 33 elected representatives of Local Panchayath (Local Government Bodies) to appraise them about the progress of the resettlement project and to mobilize additional support for voluntary resettlement from Nagarahole reserve.

Publish conservation material Two issues of the bi-annual magazine in ‘Nisarga’ have been published during the reporting period. This magazine covers various conservation issues written in both Kannada the local language and English.

Exploratory activities The project leader was also actively involved in educating 35 key political leaders. Formal and informal meetings with Forest Department officials were also held and information on forest offences were provided to the staff.

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GOALS/ ACTIVITIES FOR THE NEXT YEAR

1. Continue conservation education programs for students, rural youth and opinion makers.

2. Motivate and train teachers who will then educate school children on local conservation issues.

3. Continue the publication of the six monthly Newsletter - "Nisarga" (Nature) and produce other educational / publicity materials.

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