Director of the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s India Programme, Dr. Ullas Karanth is a world-renowned authority on wild life (especially tigers) and has authored two best-selling books on tigers: A View From The Machan and The Way Of The Tiger! He recently received the Sanctuary-ABN Amro Lifetime Service Achievement Award for 2007…
By Vimla Patil
Big things often begin in small ways. Dr. Ullas Karanth, son of the legendary Dr. Shivrama Karanth and one of the world’s leading authorities on wild life – especially the tiger and its habitats – began his educational career in a Kannada medium school, in the relatively unknown town of Puttur in South Kanara, Karnataka. From Puttur, however, he catapulted to Florida, U.S. to do his Master’s in wild life management and then returned to Mangalore to complete his doctorate! “I have led an exciting life by any standards,” he said after recently receiving the Sanctuary-ABN Amro Lifetime Service Achievement Award for 2007, “I have often been on jungle expeditions where I was within the leaping distance of a tiger while tracking these magnificent animals in our wild life sanctuaries. There were many dangerous occasions in my life, but I have not really faced any life threatening situations.”
Dr. Karanth’s journey of the discovery of India’s wild life began when his aunt presented him a copy of Dr. Salim Ali’s book in the 50s and encouraged him to look at birds with eyes full of wonder. With his forester cousin Shyam Sunder, he roamed the jungles of Karnataka and his long time forest ranger-friend K M Chinnappa helped him to become an expert in field craft in Nagarhole. “I also read the writings of George Schaller, whose research on tigers is legendary. Now, after years in the wild life field, my work entails radio tracking tigers, encouraging my ream to look after the wild life of India, creating publicity among lay people and working to keep the international organization buzzing with wild life news and seeking solutions to problems which all of us face. My main work is to create and spread the passion for the conservation of wild life – especially tigers – among international experts, workers in India and generally among children who must look after this grand heritage of their country.”
Dr. Karanth’s movement to conserve the tiger’s habitats has taken him all over India. “I found that the awareness of the danger to our forests and tigers was limited to cities and the elite educated who would discuss this problem in their urban meetings. I felt strongly that small town middle class and poor rural people and children needed to be seriously involved in this programme in huge numbers - irrespective of their class and language barriers. The core of the ‘caring junta’ comes from the rural areas where people fight for all varieties of rights including those for women, Adivasis and children!”
According to Dr. Karanth, most tiger breeding projects are now found in protected areas and some reserved habitats – and these are lessening by the day! He is fighting for fair and adequate relocation and compensation for jungle communities so that the tigers of India can survive. “Forest dwellers must voluntarily realize that living away from the forest and relocating can be their own choice to get themselves a better life with more facilities,” he says.
Most of Dr. Karanth’s work has been centred on the Nagarhole Sanctuary in Karnataka. “My research shows that there are 8-15 tigers per 100 sq. km. in the Nagarhole-Bandipur jungles,” he says, “I am encouraged by the fact that this tiger population is highly productive and the birth rate is higher than the death rate in this jungle. This is a hopeful sign. According to me, though there are regional success stories, India’s Tiger Project was a moderate success in the 70s and 80s. Since then, we have suffered great losses to our tiger population. But I don’t agree with the statement that they will be extinct by 2010! I would prioritize this programme to include three aspects: Better budgets for conservation, systematic and fast resettlement of people living in jungles and modernization of rural areas around wild life habitats so that exploitation of forest resources comes to an early end. We need to find a technically efficient management agency instead of the current IFS (Indian Forest Service) which should be responsible for the conservation of forests and wild life and achievement of the three priorities. While this is done for management, we must work harder to raise consciousness of young people regarding India’s wild life and the dire need to conserve our forest and wild life wealth. Our schools and social systems including the family must teach children to watch nature and wild life instead of television and cricket all the time! We must train educators and teachers to focus on this subject themselves – and of course parents must be made aware of the need to get their children back to nature!
“I have given whatever ideas I can to conserve our wild life and worked sincerely for this cause. I am concerned about animals, birds and forests and their welfare. Whatever remnants are available to us now, must be looked after for our planet to be healthy and secure in the future. We hold our natural resources, jungles and wild life in trust for future generations. We must do our duty by them!”
The Sanctuary-ABN Amro 2007 Awards included three best wild life photography awards. In this, the first prize was won by Sachin Rai, whose picture ‘Forest Phantom’ featuring a Ward’s Trogon in flight from its nest. The picture was taken in the Eagle’s Nest Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh.
Photo captions:
l. Dr. Ullas Karanth at work.
2. First prize winning photo by Sachin Rai – Forest Phantom
Long Live Sanatan Dharam
January 2008. Email feedback to: vimla@vimlapatil.com