COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP FOR TIGER CONSERVATION (CLTC) KUDREMUKH
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
NIREN JAIN
Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation Mangalore, 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 8
7. Exploratory activities 10
8. Goals/activities for the next year 10
FINAL REPORT TO STF REPORTING PERIOD – 1ST July 2001 to 30th June 2002
PROJECT TITLE: Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (CLTC) Kudremukh
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 Kudremukh National Park under the Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (CLTC) implemented by Niren Jain of the Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation from July 2001in 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 (Kudremukh) aims at the following
• Reducing human pressures inside the park
• Improving protection system through training and motivating field staff
• Campaign against continuation of mining activity in the national park
• Mobilise public support and build local conservation leadership for long-term conservation of the park
• Explore opportunities for buying and consolidation of enclosures within the park
60 field-monitoring activities have been taken up to reduce human pressures and improve protection system. The project leader has continuously liased with senior forest department officials and the field staff to improve effectiveness of protection mechanism. 142 formal and informal meetings were held with forest department personnel to monitor and improve the effectiveness of protection mechanism. One training camp on effective use of wireless radios was organised under the project.
To motivate the field staff 80 sets of field kits and 64 insurance policies were donated to the field protection staff. Five motivational awards were presented to field protection staff for exemplary protection work.
The multi-pronged campaign against the continuation of iron ore mining in Kudremukh Reserve was carried on through intensive interactions with decision makers, community leaders and the media. The 12-minute video documentary earlier
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produced with funding from 21st Century Tiger is being effectively used to educate people about the negative impacts of mining. Several violations of wildlife and forest laws by the mining company were brought to the notice of the forest department resulting in initiation of action against the mining company.
A hydrological study on sedimentation of River Bhadra due to mining has been taken up in collaboration with Centre for Wildlife Studies and hydrologist Jagdish Krishnaswamy of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment. Wildlife Conservation Society, India Program, funds this project.
The CLTC project leader in association with government departments has carried out a detailed survey on the number of people living inside the reserve. This will form the basis in preparing the voluntary rehabilitation project proposal to consolidate tiger habitat. The project leader has already liaisoned with villagers inside the reserve about voluntary rehabilitation many of whom are willing to move out.
The project leader has also initiated conflict resolution activities to negate the misinformation campaign about the reserve and voluntary rehabilitation. Over 250 families living inside the reserve have been reached through these conflict resolution meetings. Dialogue has been carried out with two prominent rural development organisations who have expressed support for the reserve and the voluntary rehabilitation project.
The project leader has explored possibilities to acquire private land enclosures inside the reserve. A total of 400 ha of land has been identified by the project leader for land purchases to consolidate prime tiger habitat within the reserve. A detailed framework has been worked out in consultation with senior government officials.
12 slide talks and other community education programs were taken up under the project to reach out to students, school children and teachers living around the reserve. This will mobilise community support for the reserve. Five field exposure visits to journalists were carried on to sensitise journalists about the reserve.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Community Leadership for Tiger Conservation (Kudremukh) 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, Kudremukh 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 Leader: Niren Jain, Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation
COLLABORATORS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
I. Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program II. Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore. III. Wildlife First, Bangalore IV. Nagarahole Wildlife Conservation Education Project (NAWICOED) V. Nature Conservation Guild, Chikmagalur VI. Wild Cat-C, Chikmagalur VII. Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore VIII. Arohana, Mangalore IX. Dharmasthala Rural Development Project
PROJECT DURATION: Start date : July 01, 2001, End date : June 30, 2002
PROJECT BUDGET: $ 14,500
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PROJECT NEED: The Kudremukh National Park is the largest declared wildlife Protected Area (600 sq. km) of a tropical wet evergreen type of forest in the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats is one of the twenty-five hot spots identified for bio-diversity conservation in the world (Myers Norman et. al., 1988, Conservation International). The Kudremukh National Park comes under the Global Tiger Conservation Priority I, TCU-55 (Wikramanayake E.D. et. al., 1998), under the format developed jointly by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and World Wide Fund-USA. The western & southern sides of the Park form a steep slope with an altitude varying from 100m - 1880m. This has made the forest difficult to access and consequently has not been subjected to intensive human exploitation or clear felling to make space for cultivation in its more remote parts. The main vegetation type in the Park (Pascal J.P., Meher-Homji, 1982) is mainly evergreen or semi-evergreen climax & potentially related forests. The central, northern & eastern portions of the Park comprise a formation of rolling hills with a mosaic of grasslands and sholas. The northern end of the Park borders on the Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary and the southern end is linked to Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary through a narrow stretch of Reserved Forests. A diverse assemblage of endangered large mammals is found in the Park supporting three large mammal predator species Tiger (Panthera tigris-EN as listed in the IUCN threatened species list, EN- Endangered) Leopard (Panthera pardus) and Wild Dogs (Cuon alpinus-VU, Vulnerable). The important tiger prey base found within the Park are Gaur (Bos gaurus-VU), Sambar (Cervus Unicolor), Wild Pig (Sus scrofa), Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjac), Chevrotain (Tragulus memmina), Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata), Common Langur (Presbytis entellus -LR, Lower Risk) and the Lion Tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus - EN). In 1916 the Government declared the area as Reserved Forest, to stop rampant slash and burn cultivation practices. Later, the Government of Karnataka declared these Reserved Forests as a National Park in 1987 based on the presence of the highly endangered Lion Tailed Macaques in these forests (Karanth K.U., 1985). Threats to tigers and its habitat 1. Poisoning Tiger Kills: Livestock depredation by tigers from human settlements within the Park and in the villages surrounding the Park, have driven people to taking preventative measures by eliminating the large predators through poisoning the half eaten kill. Such acts pose a threat to the tiger population over the years. 2. Threat to Tiger's Prey Base: Hunting of large mammals by the local community mainly for meat, has substantially depleted the tiger prey population in the Park. Hunting intensities in Kudremukh National Park have been estimated as 218 hunter days per month, per enclave, with forty three percent success on every hunt (Madhusudhan M.D. and Karanth K.U. in press). The fact that hunters are hardly aware of the ban on poaching in the protected areas, manifest the minimal effort by the enforcing authorities on apprehending or prosecuting the poachers. Crop raiding species like the Wild Pig, Gaur and Bonnet Macaque have further impelled the village farmers into retaliatory hunting in the forest.
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3. Mining: An iron-ore open cast mining operation by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL) in a leased enclosure of 46.05sqkm is ongoing for the past 3-decades. The mining area is located adjoining the eastern edge of the Park. The company has developed roads, bridges and has cut high-tension electric lines through the Park area. The roads have exposed one of the hitherto most unapproachable terrains of forests to human intrusion. A 100m high earth-fill dam (across the river Bhadra), meant to hold iron ore tailings has silted up parts of the shola forests. The water in the stream beyond the dam area is muddy. The mining lease, which was granted for a period of thirty years to KIOCL, was demised on 25th of July 1999. The lease has been renewed twice as a temporary working permission over the already broken up area up to July 2001. There is a pressure on the Government to de-notify the already broken area from the purview of the National Park to facilitate extraction of deep mining by the company in the broken area. 4. Settlements inside the Park: There are several legal human settlements as enclosures inside the Park. Besides the legal enclosures, there are encroached settlements within the park and the Forest Department has filed cases against most of them. 5. Surrounding pressures: Eighty-eight villages surround the Park, most of the agriculturists & low-income group families in these villages depend on the Park to meet their fuel wood, green leaves & leaf-litter needs for manure. Collection of cane for furniture and baskets, medicinal plants, seeds etc which has got a high market value is over exploited by the villagers. Exploitation of such forest resources is another threat to the quality of the habitat in the fringes of the Park. 6. Forest Fires: Intentional fires (during the dry season of April-May) to facilitate grazing especially on the grasslands and accidental fires due to minor forest produce collection like honey is one of the biggest threat to the evergreen habitat. 7. Lack of effective protection system and motivation among the field staff: The protection mechanisms are just beginning to be established and the field staff of Karnataka State Forest Department (KFD) Wildlife wing need constant motivation to ensure good Park protection. 8. Negative attitude of the public towards conservation: Lack of awareness and knowledge amongst the public on the wildlife of the region and conflicting interests in the needs of man and wildlife, have created a negative attitude amongst the public towards wildlife conservation in the area. 9. Tourism: The scenic beauty, the climate and the private ownership of a large amount of land as enclosures within the Park, have attracted unregulated trekking inside the Park and are beginning to catch the attention of organised resort operators. The above threats need to be addressed immediately for the long term of survival of tigers and their prey habitats in Kudremukh National Park.
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DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES : July 2001 – June 2002
1. Improving the protection system and motivation of the field staff
60 field visits and 142 formal and informal meetings were made by the project leader to monitor the effectiveness of the anti-poaching camps and other protection measures. After consistent follow up by the project leader the forest department has established 3 check posts at entry points on public roads that cut through the reserve.
During these field visits, the project leader monitored the utilisation of patrol vehicles and wireless equipment donated earlier under the Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project funded by Save the Tiger Fund of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), and other Wildlife Conservation Society donors. With support from a local amateur radio club, a workshop on effective use and maintenance of wireless radio equipment was organised for the field protection staff that was attended by 80 protection staff.
The project leader also liased with the reserve warden to ensure setting up of 8 antipoaching camps at strategic points in the reserve during the reporting period that deters and prevents offenders. A field co-ordinator has also been appointed to gather information on illegal activities inside the reserve.
Due to the continuous follow up of the project leader with the reserve warden pre- burning of grasslands (a erroneous management practise employed to prevent grassland fire during the dry seasons) has been discontinued. The project leader also highlighted the need for fire protection, which resulted in the reserve warden ensuring a good network of temporary fire-protection camps during the dry season.
The project leader has held follow up meetings with the reserve authorities to close the state highway passing through the reserve for vehicular traffic between dusk and dawn to control illegal activities and reduce disturbance to wildlife. As a first step forward, the reserve warden has now initiated collection of vehicular traffic data on the highway passing through the reserve to strengthen its case for stopping vehicular traffic from dusk to dawn. After sustained follow up by the project team with the Government of India, the Ministry of Environment and Forests have now communicated to the Ministry of Surface Transport to realign the proposed national highway so as to avoid passing through the Kudremukh reserve.
80 field kits each consisting of one set of uniform, cap, belt, shoes and socks were distributed to the field protection staff in association with the reserve warden. 64 insurance policies covering death and disablement during implementing protection duty has been provided to the field staff. Five protection staff selected in consultation with reserve warden have been awarded motivational rewards of Rs.5,000 (about $ 100) each.
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2. Campaign against continuation of mining activity in the national park
The multi-pronged campaign against continuation of mining in Kudremukh resulted in the issuance of the final notification of the Kudremukh Reserve covering 563 sq kms area by Government of Karnataka. With this final notification the government has committed that no new areas will be released for mining, thus assuring that the mining will not penetrate deeper into the reserve. The state government further, has conveyed its decision to the Supreme Court to wind up mining operations in five years. This decision is in response to the case filed by Wildlife First to stop the mining activity at Kudremukh. Due to consistent follow up by collaborating organisations the government has also committed in the state legislative assembly to cease the mining operations in five years.
A 12-minute video documentary produced earlier under the 21st Century Tiger funded CLTC project (2000 – 2001) is being screened at many public meetings and in several educational institutions around the region and in the state capital. A signature campaign has been initiated by students against continuation of mining due to this educational activity. The video documentary has also been aired over 70 times on local cable networks in 10 towns around the Kudremukh reserve.
Information on the violations of the mining company within the reserve during the reporting was provided to the authorities enabling them to book two new cases against the mining company. These violations have also been brought to the notice of the Supreme Court by Wildlife First who have presented satellite imageries depicting the illegal expansion of the mining activity in the reserve. Presentations were also made to the federal government committee comprising of senior officials of the Ministry of Forests and Environment and members of the Indian Board for Wildlife that inspected the mining site to inspect violations.
Five field visits were also organised for local journalists and two important religious leaders to sensitise them on the ill effects of mining within the reserve. 24 press reports were generated during the reporting period to educate general public about the ill effects of mining in Kudremukh. The project leader also held 4 meetings with democratically elected representatives regarding the mining issue during the reporting period.
The project leader in partnership with Centre for Wildlife Studies and hydrologist Jagdish Krishnaswamy of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment has initiated a hydrological study on the impacts of mining on Bhadra River system and the consequent reduction in storage capacity of the Bhadra Reservoir. This is the first study during wet season when sediment concentrations are very high. This study has the approval of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Karnataka. Based on the preliminary study reports a detailed presentation was made to the Minister for Water Resources and senior officials of the ministry about the ill effects of mining on the Bhadra River system.
3. Long-term consolidation of the reserve through voluntary rehabilitation
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A detailed demographic survey has been completed by the government authorities in association with the CLTC project leaders to record the number of families and the total number of people living inside the Kudremukh reserve. The data will be compiled by the project leader and presented to the reserve warden to develop a detailed proposal for voluntary rehabilitation. 7 meetings were also conducted with the local communities to dispel apprehensions created by vested interests through misleading campaigns against voluntary rehabilitation. Around 250 families have been reached to garner support and participation in the voluntary rehabilitation project. The project leader alongwith other conservation partners has provided necessary inputs to the voluntary rehabilitation project proposal prepared by the Karnataka Forest Department. The project, which will be implemented by the state government, is expected to be initiated in the next two or three years. A team of 15 families were taken to the voluntary rehabilitation site of Bhadra Tiger Reserve where a similar voluntary rehabilitation project is under active implementation. They interact with communities who have voluntarily relocated out of Bhadra Reserve who told them that they were happy with the package offered.
The project leader along with other partner organisations initiated a dialogue with other rural development and social activist organizations working around the reserve to mobilize support for the voluntary resettlement of people. The dialogue has been successful in convincing two major groups working in the region to support the voluntary resettlement concept. Certain other groups who opposed the removal of illegal encroachment of forestland have now publicly clarified that they do not support illegal encroachments that are a long-term threat.
4. Community education and mobilising public support
Nine slide talks were presented to schools, associations and other organisations in the region around Kudremukh reserve. Three nature camps were also conducted for students and teachers as a part of community education programs. Around 1050 students, 75 teachers and 100 local villagers participated in these outreach efforts. Resource assistance was also provided for a workshop on environment organised by a law college in which 50 teachers participated.
One teachers training workshop was conducted during the reporting period which was attended by 25 teachers handpicked from different schools around reserve. The project leader has also edified several eminent personalities and local community leaders to mobilise support for the reserve.
A total of 24 media reports and four popular write ups were generated in state and national dailies during the reporting period to garner support for the reserve and against continuation of mining.
Project administration The project office has been shifted to Mangalore to ensure better coordination with the district administration officials and the Wildlife Warden of the reserve whose office is now in the district headquarters at Mangalore.
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EXPLORATORY ACTIVITIES: 1. Inputs were provided to the state forest department for preparing management plan for Kudremukh reserve.
2. Ullas Karanth and the project leader have submitted a proposal to the forest department to declare Kudremukh Reserve as a roadless wilderness area. If adopted, it will bring a halt to formation of new road networks inside the reserve.
GOALS/ACTIVITIES FOR THE NEXT YEAR: 1. Continue the campaign to stop mining activity at Kudremukh
2. Follow up with respective authorities to initiate a voluntary resettlement project and land parcels and surrender it to the government for notifying and merging it into the reserve.
3. Continue conservation monitoring and community education activities
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