Reviving a Wildlife Ecosystem

(The ‘Kanha as a Moveable Feast’ Series)

by Dr. Sanjay K Shukla

This article series derives its spirit from ‘A Moveable Feast’ a memoir written by the famous American author Ernest Hemingway. In his memoir, he wrote that if one has lived somewhere passionately, it remains with you, nourishes you, wherever you go. My long years at Kanha have been something of that kind - a landscape of memories, reflections, animals, seasons, panoramas, and, of course, questions that still travel with me, long after I bade it goodbye.

Palash flowers (Butea monosperma), popularly known as the ‘flame of the forest’, had heralded the arrival of spring in this mesmerizing forest, transforming it into patches of orange-red hues. It was a cool February morning, and the previous night’s shower had added fragrance to the earthy smell of the soil. The light haze still hung over the meadow, and the breeze wafting across it carried the salubrious aroma of the rich vegetation of trees, climbers and grass. We were in an open four-wheel-drive vehicle, monitoring a radio-collared tiger through telemetry. We followed the beeps as they grew stronger and stopped near a small grove of sal (Shorea robusta) trees with dense undergrowth. The occasional guttural alarm calls of black-faced monkeys evoked high-pitched alarm calls from a chital herd grazing nearby, betraying the presence of a predator. All of a sudden, the tiger sprang out of nowhere, darted into the chital herd, knocked down a male chital with its powerful forelimbs and dug its formidable jaws into the deer’s throat. It was over in seconds. The hush that had fallen over the place was all too brief, and it was nature’s business as usual at Kanha.

This was no ordinary tiger, and had some special conservation credentials. The animal was actually one of three orphaned cubs - one male and two females - reared and trained in a specially designed, large in-situ enclosure with a mechanism to facilitate hunting opportunities for trainee cubs! It was probably the first time orphaned tiger cubs had been trained for survival and rewilding. Over the years, such trained cubs, both male and female, have been released successfully as young adults into the Satpura, Panna, Kanha tiger reserves, and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary. So far, fifteen orphaned tigers have been rewilded. While there is no intention here to imply that the mother is dispensable in a tiger family, in the past such cubs were fated for captivity in zoos, an undignified and dreary life for such a magnificent animal. It is interesting that two such cubs of an earlier batch, reared and trained in this manner, grew into handsome tigresses and were released into Panna tiger reserve several years ago. These tigresses have produced several cubs and are credited with restocking a reserve that was once bereft of tigers.

Even after so many years, Kanha never ceases to amaze one with its pristine manifestations of nature: lush green grasslands, secluded tree groves, densely forested plains, forested hills and slopes and quasi wetlands, with, of course, majestic tigers and thousands of wild animals of different species.  

Biodiversity Conservation

Many decades ago, in the 1930s, when Kanha was not even a national park but only two small wildlife sanctuaries, some very basic wildlife management practices and activities – forest conservation, wildlife and its habitat protection, fire management, soil conservation etc. - under the umbrella term ‘conservation’ were already underway. Though rudimentary by modern standards, these practices gradually became increasingly professional and technical as new knowledge and techniques of wildlife conservation emerged from pragmatic and experiential knowledge. Besides, conservation goals/ objectives and challenges also inspired wildlife managers to adopt relevant managerial practices available in updated departmental documents and occasional publications by Indian and British foresters and conservationists. At this time the concept of biological conservation as a distinct concept was still a few decades away, and the term ‘conservation’ historically encompassed almost all practices later to be collectively categorized under this newly coined phrase. 

by Anant Zanjale

Raymond A. Dasmann was a conservation biologist who coined the term “biological conservation” in his book ‘A Different Kind of Country’ in 1968, and he also meant it largely in that context. With time, however, the meaning and definition of biodiversity gradually widened. The term was later popularised as ‘biodiversity conservation’ around 1986. It is actually the diversity of life, or all life forms, on earth. It is the entire conceivable variety of living things, including their habitats and the interactions between them. More technically speaking, biological diversity embraces all species of animals, plants, and microbes, the genetic variation within each species, and the variety and complexity of the habitats and ecosystems that support and are supported by these species. The full interpretation of biodiversity, however, may also include the educational, cultural, spiritual, and aesthetic significance this great variety entails.

Although the extermination of biological species has been a predictable phenomenon of evolution since life first appeared on the planet, experts believe that the present deterioration of the natural environment is responsible for the current unprecedented rate of extinction of species. Warnings emerging from some recent studies reveal that India has already lost around 90 percent of the area under our four biodiversity hotspots. Besides, around 70 percent of our protected areas are seriously fragmented. There are several reliable studies that point to staggering percentages of loss of floral and faunal species. The threat to biodiversity has also increased and become more serious over the past decades.

by Anant Zanjale - Black Naped Monarch

The utility of the humble mold Penicillin to humanity is a case in point. This great medical breakthrough is said to have saved around 200 million lives. One does not know about the rest of the species, and ironically, the onus of proving their utility to humankind or nature is on the species themselves. Many species will become extinct before they can prove their value to humans. The only wise course of action is to conserve each and every species regardless of its supposed usefulness.

A Famed Ecosystem

The Kanha core ecosystem is an example of in-situ conservation where the entire range of floral and faunal species with their genetic variations is preserved as part of a healthy, functioning ecosystem. The usual direct and underlying drivers – encroachment, illicit felling, fragmentation, poaching, population, and cultural and social factors – had acted upon the present Kanha ecosystem over the past decades and had rendered the landscape hopelessly vulnerable. Decades later, however, defying all pessimism and doubts, Kanha is now almost recovered from these considerable past ecological assaults. The sal tree and its main associates, once suppressed because of unfavorable factors, have now revived with a characteristic understorey and undergrowth and have turned into the most representative woodland of this biogeographic region. Many damaged areas of the ecosystem are now remarkably restocked with original vegetation. The degraded bamboo forests of the 1970s have now recovered, and there is excellent growth of this wonderful forest crop as an understorey. Vegetation along the banks of rivers and streams has also revived, with tall grass species in the beds. The forests of the protected area ecosystem are in excellent condition with 12 clear vegetal cover types within the broad vegetation types of sal, miscellaneous, bamboo and grassland.

by Sudhir Mishra

The Kanha wildlife ecosystem also supports populations of many carnivore and herbivore species, and their general response to biodiversity conservation practices has been a normal increase within the habitat-prey-predator dynamics. The tiger reserve is surrounded by a vast stretch of forests and forms the nucleus of a source population of tigers, where stringent protection and a good prey base, with excellent natal areas, facilitate regular breeding and the birth of new cubs. The probability of these cubs reaching adulthood at Kanha is high owing to many congenial factors. Outside the tiger reserve, in managed forests, however, tigers are faced with a wide range of threats and challenges, and this sink population needs supplementation from Kanha’s source population as young tigers start dispersing from their mothers. This concept of source-and-sink population dynamics of tigers has made the tiger reserve all the more relevant. Effective biodiversity conservation practices have ensured a good prey base for three main species of carnivores, namely, the tiger, the leopard and the wild dog. The protected area is also renowned for its excellent grassland habitats that sustain thousands of at least nine major species of ungulates, including the endemic hard ground barasingha. Apart from the two endangered species, the tiger and the hard ground barasingha, the ecosystem supports some other wildlife species of this biogeographic zone - Zone 6E—Deccan Peninsula (Central Highlands) that are important according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species and the schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Mechanism of Conservation

Kanha Tiger Reserve is regarded as an important centre of biodiversity conservation in the country. Goal-oriented strategies, systematic conservation practices, and periodic evaluations have, over the years, made Kanha an embodiment of the concept of biodiversity conservation in the country. The significance of the biodiversity conservation planning and practices at Kanha lies in setting and achieving a host of highly important objectives of conservation priorities, including the sustained addressing of challenges and threats to conservation.

by Sudhir Mishra

Acting upon the core-buffer strategy for effective biodiversity conservation in a protected area, Kanha is probably the first tiger reserve in the country to have brought the already notified buffer zone, previously with several territorial divisions, under the unified control of the reserve management way back in 1996. The Kanha management, which had been reaping the benefits of village relocation for the past several years, continued with this practice of taking forest villagers into confidence and relocating them outside under a mutually agreed arrangement.  Most village relocations were very smooth, amicable, and hassle-free.

The Kanha management wishes to conserve for posterity the biodiversity of the Kanha wildlife ecosystem in its entirety, by garnering support from local communities through well-established eco-development committees and eco-development programmes. The mechanism of biodiversity conservation at Kanha involves an effective combination of protection of wildlife and habitat, fire management, and species-specific and habitat-specific approaches through ecological restoration, monitoring of biodiversity, cooperation of local communities, and proactive managerial initiatives.

The Kanha management is known to have adopted a protection-oriented approach for a long time with its reliable communication system, strategically placed forest patrolling camps, and intensive patrolling strategies, which have resulted in an appreciable increase in wildlife populations, and have kept forest and wildlife offences well under control. Some iconic and high-priority animal species require special treatment owing to their endangered status and specialized habits and habitats. One such species is the hard ground barasingha. The cervid, a graminivore, is partial to water bodies and swamps and requires tallgrass cover for its survival. Under Kanha’s recovery/ conservation plan for the barasingha, all subpopulations are monitored daily and their habitats and microhabitats are specially improved and modified to facilitate their speedy recovery.

by Dr. Sanjay K Shukla

The tiger population is monitored regularly under Phase IV of the new estimation methodology developed by the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Long-term ecological studies are also underway to gather important information on densities, social organization, prey-predator relationships and other ecological parameters.

Ecological restoration is important to make the ecosystem resilient and self-sustaining with respect to natural species composition and function. The approach at Kanha ensures that habitats are managed continually to suit the requirements of the respective wildlife species. The famous Kanha meadows are systematically maintained by eradicating obnoxious weed species, and restocking grasslands for herbivores.

These plagioclimax and anthropogenic grasslands, sites of relocated villages, represent an “arrested” stage of ecological succession which now, under favourable conditions, encourages the succession further towards a climax community - the ultimate vegetation structure supported by the soil and climate of the region. This phenomenon results in the infestation of woody species. If they are not eradicated in time, it will lead to the disappearance of the grasslands, which herbivores need. Besides, eco-restoration also includes creating linkages within the ecosystem and improving the soil and moisture regime, water development, and fire protection.

The tiger reserve management has adopted a multipronged strategy to monitor biodiversity in the protected area. This includes periodic floral and faunal monitoring by trained staff under a prescribed format, which involves quinquennial monitoring of vegetation, photographic captures of animals by fixed camera traps, maintaining a photographic and digital herbarium of grass species, etc. Most of the monitoring data have been used in various documents such as management plans, tiger conservation plans and technical reports. Besides in-house short-term studies, special consultancies are also assigned periodically to different institutions and experts to assess and quantify the biodiversity status of the protected area.

Apart from acquiring scientific knowledge of biodiversity conservation, there is another important factor that determines the success or failure of conservation efforts, namely the attitude of local communities towards the Kanha management and its practices of biodiversity conservation. The Kanha management has had to move carefully in building trust and confidence and has now successfully put across its commitments of socio-economic uplift to these stakeholders. The managerial efforts have been reflected in the spontaneous response to the formation of eco-development committees and the implementation of eco-development projects in the villages. The park-people cooperation approach has resulted in a positive change in the attitude of the majority of the people towards conservation of the tiger reserve and will go a long way in increasing biodiversity conservation.

by Shilendra Uike

Innovation and Impact

The Kanha management has over the years taken a host of innovative measures to strengthen conservation. These innovations might also have had some impact on park management, policy and programs elsewhere in the country. With all 37 forest villages relocated outside, today the entire core zone is completely free from anthropogenic activities and biotic pressure. The village relocation program has also resulted in the expansion of grassland area from around eight percent to eleven percent area of the total core zone. These village sites have morphed into excellent grasslands and now remain a critical foraging habitat for thousands of ungulates. The resurrection of the hard ground barasingha from a mere 66 animals in 1970 to nearly around 900 in 2026, with a wide distribution in the Kanha ecosystem, indicates the good health of the habitats for the cervids. Kanha also boasts an unblemished record of sustained systematic conservation of a viable population of the endangered tiger for the past four decades. Besides protecting the majestic species in this ecosystem, the Kanha management has provided pragmatic ideas for and insights into conservation planning at the landscape level, with ecological corridors between wildlife protected areas. As per the results of the latest results of Phase IV monitoring, there are 158 tigers, including cubs. Detailed telemetry studies of several tigers of different ages and both sexes have also been undertaken.

Besides, Kanha also supports a good population of leopards (148 as of 2024). Under proactive wildlife management, the reintroduction of several tiger cubs - reared, raised, and trained for predation and survival - by the Kanha management into several wildlife protected areas has proved to national and international conservation communities that this can also be a reliable technique to restock and restore tiger populations in problem areas. Stringent protection under different strategies throughout the year and assiduous habitat improvement practices have increased populations of different ungulate species in the core zone.

In recent years, Kanha has also played a ‘donor’ protected area and added to the biodiversity status of several tiger reserves by translocating there many barasingha, gaur, chital and tigers under an ambitious multidisciplinary collaborative program, which has opened up new possibilities for such ventures anywhere in the country. Soon there will be a new feather in Kanha's cap, as the Kanha management has almost completed preparations to reintroduce wild buffaloes (Bubalus arnee) into the Supkhar range. Fifty founders, in several batches, will be brought in from Assam. Around one hundred years ago, this area of Kanha also supported a population of these large bovines. Gradually, however, the entire population went locally extinct. Let us hope this new addition to Kanha's biodiversity establishes a viable population.

This revised and updated article was first published in Frontline magazine several years ago.