A knight to the rescue: Sir Richard and WildAid unite for tiger conservation

On Monday, Jim’s Jungle Retreat was humbled, honored and extremely excited to host a discovery excursion for international donors looking to aid tiger conservation at Corbett Tiger Reserve under the guidance of WildAid, an international wildlife conservation organization, and the Virgin Group’s non-profit foundation Virgin Unite.

Sir Richard Branson and his son Sam Branson were here to encourage donors to give to this urgent and important cause, to appreciate the area’s stunning diversity of plant and animal life and the various issues facing the Corbett landscape.

The two-day program began with a visit to Choti Haldwani, Jim Corbett’s adopted village, where the group interacted with members from the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti, a community-based tourism project.

This was followed by a jungle walk in the forest by the retreat. Groups of five and six set out along the riverbed and were intrigued to see first-hand the ample signs of wildlife in this forest buffer. A key take away for them was the importance of patrolling these areas as well. A well-protected forest that provides buffer to a larger protected jungle gives tremendous advantage to the wildlife within the main reserve. Animals don’t recognize borders, we do.

The next day began with an early morning start. The safari vehicles were out before sunrise and headed to Bijrani for a full day, stopping for lunch at Malani’s beautiful forest rest house, a 1900s vintage bungalow. And while a tiger sighting was not to be, Sir Richard and Sam enjoyed a quiet hour on elephant back in the spectacular grasslands in Bijrani.

What was extremely positive about the Bijrani experience was the group members’ appreciation of the forest and what it offered: quiet and solitude, its nurturing energy, a magnificent terrain, and animals roaming in the wild as was their true destiny.

Later, in the evening, Sir Richard presented the Deputy Field Director and Corbett’s forest department with a rapid response vehicle that is hoped will be used for anti-poaching efforts and to resolve man-animal conflict. At dinner, the donors interacted with the Deputy Field Director and learned about tiger conservation and Corbett management’s plans for safeguarding its precious heritage.

We hope that the destination and event served the foundation’s goals well and that their donors too are mightily convinced of this worthy venture for tiger and Corbett conservation. Among WildAid and Virgin Unites’ goals is the protection and restoration of wildlife corridors - essential migration corridors that help in maintaining a healthy gene pool. Along with proper protection of buffer forests, this corridor protection is vital for the tiger, threatened as he is by large-scale loss of habitat and degraded forest. Community outreach is another area that is part of the funds focus. We would be happy to help in all of their efforts, starting out with the expansion of our own community outreach programs.

We wish Sir Richard and Sam, and the entire team at WildAid and Virgin Unite great success in this important program they’ve set out to accomplish. Thank you for coming to this part of the world to learn about our issues and to offer much-needed action-based support.

Links:

Reuters report:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/02/idINIndia-60270320111102

Report in India Today

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/richard-branson-wildaid-animals-facing-extinction/1/158065.html

WildAid's India chapter

http://www.wildaid.org/india?page=0%2C2

Sir Richard's blog

http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/the-tigers-of-india

This includes a WildAid film on tiger conservation.

NDTV link
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/ndtv-special-ndtv-24x7/richard-branson-on-saving-the-tiger-in-india/215463?hp

A new logo for Jim's Jungle Retreat

I am very pleased to reveal our new logo, which we hope will inspire conversation, provoke conservation-related discussion and provide new energy to our philosophy of “Seek the tiger, find the jungle.”  

The tiger pugmark logo offers an entire jungle to the onlooker – the pad reveals leaves and a tree, its toes are shaped to represent four additional elements found in a forest: amphibian and aquatic life, reptilian species, insects and avian varieties, while the pugmark itself represents the over 50 mammalian species found in Corbett, including the tiger.

Do let us know what you think of our new mark. We at Jim's Jungle Retreat, Corbett Tiger Reserve, look forward to your reactions. 

A rising mercury offers splendid wildlife viewing

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat
Quarterly Update: by Imran Khan

As the mercury rises, Corbett’s safari timings have also changed accordingly.  Early mornings and late evenings are pleasant and one can stay in the park for a longer time during the peak hours of activity of the forest’s denizens.  Even as the wheat crop gets harvested from the farmlands surrounding Corbett, various fruiting trees like mango, litchi and Phyllanthus emblica (amla, or the Indian gooseberry), have started flowering, providing additional food sources to both insectivores and frugivores.

Meantime, many of the man-made water holes have been refilled, while several more are being created for habitat management. The scarcity of water has been felt all over the Bijrani and Jhirna tourism zones as a number of waterholes have dried up and animals living on the peripheral range of CTR tend to move closer to human habitation.  Infact, tiger sightings have been regular as most of them have chosen to remain in the vicinity of waterholes.

There are several noticeable changes to the forest cover as well, with the topography changing colour from green and brown to light green, indicating leaf fall in many species of tropical trees and the associates of Sal. Some of the species such as Indian Laburnum, Ebony trees and a large variety of ficus have started growing new leaves, providing fodder to wild elephants, primates and other herbivores.  Much of the ground vegetation, comprising the Indian Curry leaf, Clerodendron and Ageratum, among others, have started flowering and now sport a new coat of tender leaves, instigating butterflies to start looking for the nectar.  One can see several butterfly species, including the Common Tiger, Common Grass Yellow, Blue Pancy and the Evening Browns fluttering on the lower strata of the forests.

This also is an important time for birders, as several species descend on the Corbett landscape from peninsular India and the Himalayas for breeding and feeding purposes.  Peninsular arrivals include the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Blue-tailed and Chestnut headed Bee-eaters and the Indian Pitta, while various cuckoo species fly in from their Himalayan perches into Corbett to breed. The beautiful long-tailed Paradise Flycatcher, ready to breed, and the rufous males with shorter tails, learning to breed, offer excellent photography opportunities.  Nightjars too have come out of their hibernation and one can hear them often, its call similar to the sounds of a wind mill in flow. Most species of Raptors, or birds of prey, begin to establish their territories with loud calling sounds. Even as the males establish territory, the females are courted for the breeding season that begins with the onset of the monsoon in July. Various other bird species, including the Spangled drongo, Golden oriole, Indian roller and Leaf bird, have started pairing up and will begin to breed over the coming weeks. 

Corbett's Platinum Jubilee begins, Imran Khan

2011 marks Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Platinum Jubilee year that commemorates India’s pioneering wildlife conservation effort of establishing Asia’s first protected forest in 1936.

For the first time since Project Tiger’s inception in 1973 an India-wide survey reveals a marked increase in tiger numbers. A 12% rise to around 1800 tigers from 1411 in 2008, despite an overall shrinkage of habitat by 6%, is good news. However, this demands a greater push toward scientific management of the reserves as well as better relations with peripheral human settlements. This may only be possible with the intervention of chief ministers of the 17 tiger states in the country.

The Corbett landscape has been in the limelight recently, especially because of increasing tiger numbers, rising levels of man-animal conflict and a sizeable increase in the number of tourists and tourist facilities operating without a wildlife tourism policy. Positive and wider awareness about conservation at the grass root level, while building up of a strong political will for the tigers may be the main ingredients toward a successful celebration of Corbett’s 75 years of existence. The greatest inspiration comes from the sightings of around 25 - 35 cubs, caught on camera via camera traps laid across the sanctuary.

With the launch of Corbett’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, a number of events have already taken place:

* A tiger monitoring and conservation workshop, held in New Delhi and Dhikala, was attended by some of the greatest field workers, including Dr George Schaller, an authority on big cats and their habitat management; Dr Siedenstiecker, a leading gene biologist on big cat inbreeding and possible repercussions, and a plethora of government and non-government representatives. The outcome of the workshop was to refocus emphasis on foot patrolling, beat management, wide use of camera traps and monitoring of the pugmarks.

* A workshop titled “Tourism & Tiger” with active participation from local politicians, villagers, print media and forest personnel, which resulted in positive and constructive discussions on responsible and irresponsible tourism. The end result of the daylong discussions suggested that responsible tourism is the best tool for conservation.

* A World Bank team of tiger conservation experts from U.S.A., Australia, England and Italy visited Corbett and discussed funding opportunities for better conservation techniques. During their discussions at Jim’s Jungle Retreat, we presented ideas on promoting ecosystem farming to give land back to the tiger for its forest corridors.

Other events will occur through the year in Dehradun and Corbett. By November 15 the Prime Minister is expected to close the year-long celebrations with the launch of a coffee table book on Corbett.

His majesty's grace, a moment to witness

Area: Bijrani, Overnight stay

Naturalist: Majid Hussain

Date: November 2010

We received some exciting news from Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Bijrani zone earlier in the month and a fantastic photograph to accompany it! Majid Hussain, our naturalist and assistant manager, hosted the retreat’s guests at an overnight stay in Bijrani’s forest bungalow. Unique to Corbett, forest lodges for tourist stays are available across the park’s tourism zones. These however need advance booking and organization, which Jim’s Jungle Retreat arranges for its guests for a thorough forest-entrenched jungle experience.

Day ONE of their stay, at around 6:30 AM on a late November morning, the guests and Majid set out on the road to Malani for their morning safari. Roughly 2kms from the bungalow they had spent the night in, the naturalist accompanying them, Basant, noticed fresh pugmarks of a “smallish male tiger” traversing the forest road for a good 100 meters before suddenly disappearing into the bush.

I reprise here what Majid tells me: “Basant was of the opinion that the tiger had only recently moved into the bush and was sitting somewhere in the grassland close to the track. We waited for at least an hour for any movement within the bush. The jungle seemed silent for a while as we waited.

Grace on the Malani Road, by Majid Hussain

Our patience was immense since our knowledge of the tiger’s whereabouts contained fresh inputs from the forest rangers and guards, who had informed us the night before of two in-oestrus females in the area – meaning they were ready to mate, and were heard these last few days calling out to other tigers. We were very certain that the grassland to our left contained at least one of the females as the mating calls the night before had been loud and continuous!”

All the more reason to wait where we were. Suddenly a sambar stag set off a loud alarm call on the Jar Pahar road, further up from us, near waterhole number 4. We stealthily crept up in our jeep to see what the sambar was alerted by. We got there just in time to see a beautiful female cross the road, and into the bush. We waited there, hoping she might step out on the road again, when another alarm call sent us reeling back toward the destination we had just come from, certain that the male we had been tracking was also on the move.

As we pushed back towards our original point, the moment was rewarded with a large male tiger moving out of the bush to occupy the track in front of us. Majestic, this tiger was not shy as he walked the length of the road, comfortable with the fact that we were following in our jeep.

He walked for a good 300 meters on the dirt track. We were blessed for this solitary moment with the tiger. The continuous alarm calls by cheetal and sambar unfortunately also directed other safari vehicles towards the tiger and us. For as soon as they arrived, the tiger chose to cross into the jungle, not to be seen again that day.”

Monitor Lizard’s death dance with a King Cobra

Place: Bijrani, Corbett Tiger Reserve

Photos: Manik K Harika

Text: Daleep Akoi

We had reported earlier in the summer the curious incident of two reptiles entwined in a death match: that of a Monitor Lizard of about 3 feet in length and a King Cobra, possibly one of the largest specimens recorded in Corbett Tiger Reserve, at around 20 feet if not more.

A monitor lizard, roughly the same size as the one preyed on by the cobra

The story comes to us from Ms Manik K Harika who was staying at the retreat June 12-15 earlier in the year. It was the afternoon session on June 14 – a safari to the Bijrani zone that fetched these amazing moments, captured on camera and reproduced here.

June 12 was a hot day, though the forest road was well shaded by the overhanging branches of Jamun and Haldu, offering some respite from a heat that had been threatening to turn the day into a scorcher. The jeep contained four passengers: the driver, a naturalist and the two camera-laden visitors from Delhi, zoom lenses open, their fingers ready on the clicker.

The lizard went down quickly!

A right turn from the Bijrani Forest Rest House crossing and soon they were upon a road veering into a jungle thicket. They had traveled about ten minutes when the party found itself upon a sight so strange that none could form words nor express their horror at what was unfolding before them.

A close up reveals the different scale patterns on the two reptilian species

On the side of the road, by the exposed roots of a tree, lay a giant cobra convulsing, its scales moving to expand around the body of a prey now unable to offer any resistance. The troupe of four looked on as though in a trance, unable to peel away from this exhibition of incredible motion: the body of the snake in a vice-like grip, swirling about a reptile now limp, its oxygen depleted, its body emasculated.

The photo series reveal how the cobra swallowed an entire monitor lizard, nose to tail, in not more than 15 minutes!

The lizard-snake encounter was not the only excitement their adventure was to offer. Manik and her friends also witnessed an incident just as unusual and strange on a different day and in a different part of the forest. Another unusual display of jungle behavior was evident when they found themselves upon a cobra successfully trapping its predator, a serpent eagle, which had just dropped from the sky to airlift it for a treetop meal.

In possibly the biggest shock the eagle would receive – its character so used to piercing a writhing serpent with its talons - that the tables would turn so suddenly and decisively was indeed an important lesson for the bird, even if it was its last. With one delayed thrust from the eagle’s claws, the cobra pressed an advantage it didn’t have over the bird earlier. And with the eagle’s momentary lapse in judgment, the snake, which a few minutes ago was to be its meal, found itself a bird for dinner instead. (No cameras were taken on the safari unfortunately; photographic evidence is therefore unavailable.)

The entire length of the cobra is in evidence here

In this jungle, with over 50 mammals, 33 reptiles and over 550 birds, there’s always some twist in the tale.

The Curious Case of an Orphaned Cub

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat
Time: May 2010
Story & Photos: Jaspreet Singh

It was deathly silent that evening, the first week of May. I was sitting next to the swimming pool at Jim’s Jungle Retreat, enjoying the slight nip in the air when around 9:30 pm the silence was broken by the piercing alarm calls of a cheetal, in feverish staccato.

Alarm calls - when an animal senses danger or is in distress - don’t surprise us very much; they’re a common, often nightly occurrence. But this call seemed special – the animal seemed particularly distressed and the calling came from that part of the forest that touches the retreat’s eastern solar-electric fence.

Solar Electric Fencing around the property

The calls went on for a while and then ceased, returning the night to the sounds of a nightjar and insects. I felt certain a predator had succeeded in making its kill.

The southern peripheral area of Corbett Tiger Reserve where we’re located gets very dry after March-April and I remembered a story from a staff member who was employed when the retreat was under construction that a leopard had visited a small water hole beside the property on a nightly basis some two years ago.

Could this alarm call be the result of that leopard on a hunt?

I couldn’t sleep very well that night, eager for the morning to come and make my own discovery. I was happy to see fresh pugmarks the following morning, a trail extending 100 meters along the solar fence. The pugmarks’ size indicated a large predator all right, but which one? They were neither too small for a tiger nor too big for a leopard. It could be either!

How was I going to correctly establish this predator’s species? There weren’t many clues for me to make a solid ID that day. But it became a regular habit of mine thereafter, to follow the pugmarks whenever they appeared again, which they did several times. I began keeping a record of the movement of this elusive predator – tracking the time and route the animal took. Being able to see it, however, seemed increasingly to me a game of chance.

Finally, two weeks later news came from one of our drivers that a tiger cub was sighted crossing the main road barely 600 meters from our retreat! This was it! The clincher. A sighting had been confirmed in the very area that I had seen the pugmarks. But something worried me still. Why was this youngster patrolling the area alone? A young adult is still considered a maturing cub, and is in training for up to 2-2.5 years of its life.

One mystery had been solved: The pugmark’s size finally made sense to me.  They were of a tiger cub no more than two years! But another equally curious mystery now arose: why was the cub alone at this crucial time of its upbringing?

It didn’t take too long to finally understand why this may have occurred. The clues presented themselves one evening. On a walk through the forest I saw two sets of pugmarks side-by-side, positively that of a male and a female. Could this female be the mother of the abandoned cub? The two were patrolling the same area the young cub was in.

It seemed plausible that because of the emergence of a dominant male tiger in the vicinity the female had abandoned the cub to save it from certain death. (Unless the male is the father, a cub’s life is threatened by the presence of a rival male.)

I felt sorry for the cub now and pulled nearly every trick from my training manual to fetch a sighting. I waited for hours one night on the track he normally followed, sat patiently by the waterhole another night, and up a tree some other nights.

This cub was entirely unpredictable! I guess having to fend for itself at such a young age, it needed to be a master of illusion!

On June 28 the body of a quarter-eaten blue bull calf was found 20 meters from the solar electric fence running along us! I was excited. For this was finally an excellent opportunity at a possible sighting. A yet-to-be-eaten kill meant the predator would return soon.

Cub kill: young Nilgai (blue bull) calf

It would have to be another vigil by the kill that night. A guest staying with us enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity and soon we were parked next to the fence just as it was getting dark, at a bend on the road that kept us well hidden.

After waiting for nearly 3 hours, and with no exciting alarm calls to break the silence, just rumbling tummies aching for dinner, we decided to return for a quick bite. Within a few minutes of us sitting down to eat, a loud and prominent alarm echoed from the forest where we were just minutes ago.

We ran back to the jeep, jostling for seats until they were all taken. The calls were now regular and furious. As we approached the area where we had parked earlier one could feel the presence of a predator.  And it was not long after that the cub appeared through a lantana bush, gingerly at first and then taking purposeful strides towards us!

This was thrilling! The young male could be seen clearly in the half moon light and here he was walking just 8 meters from the jeep. The sighting lasted a few seconds before he vanished into the darkness again.

I felt euphoric on having seen him after weeks of searching, and also tremendous relief. Having had a good sighting finally, it appears that this young cub has learned his lessons well to survive in the wild without the protection of its mother.

If he had survived these past three months, he would surely be a strong survival contender, given the harsh realities of forest living. Now when we hear the calls, we’re pretty sure it’s the cub on his patrol again!

Jackals mark Cheetal in unique kill

Place: Bijrani, Corbett Tiger Reserve

Time: 26 June, 2010

Photostory: Majid Hussain

It was a warm evening on 26th June 2010. We had driven into the Bijrani zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve along with guests Pankaj Dixit and his family. I accompanied them as this was their first visit to Jim’s Jungle Retreat and Corbett Park.  

Passing through waterholes number 2 and 3, heading toward the ‘Ratapani’ track, we were suddenly aware of a furiously sharp alarm call of a cheetal deer. We stopped the jeep immediately, searching the grasslands and undergrowth for the apparent cause of alarm.

Suddenly, from out the bushes came a cheetal, running frantically and chased closely by two jackals! The deer had barely reached a clearing in the grass when the two jackals fell upon it and proceeded to tear it apart.

We were all shocked: for within the next ten minutes there wasn’t much to recognize what was left of the deer!

A sighting such as this one is rare, made all the more curious as there was no sign of additional jackals – they usually are found in packs – in a territory marked and owned by a very large male tiger.

Additionally, jackals are generally opportunistic scavengers and often take on prey that is still immature or of small size. In this highly unusual sighting, we were watching a couple of jackals, possibly a mating pair, ambushing a fairly large and full-grown deer.

The entire episode lasted until we forced ourselves to drive away, the sunlight fading to a cool summer evening.

Summertime in Corbett

Photo: Majid Hussain

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat

Quarterly Update: Imran Khan

The onset of summer not only brings rising temperatures but a certain degree of distress for Corbett Tiger Reserve’s wildlife and intricate ecological changes of our flora and fauna. A severe lack of water this year – in part thanks to the lagging monsoon and near neglible winter rains – has played havoc with human and wildlife.

For the farmer, the Rabi crop yield was a reduction from previous years, while profuse forest fires have taken a serious toll inside the national park. It seems a certain lack of preparedness – with non-clearance of fire lines on time, was the major reason for the uncontrollable spread of fire.

GLOBAL WARMING TURNS UP THE HEAT

Meantime, the effects of global warming were seen in December-January when Tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon or Indian Ebony tree or bidi patta) started fruiting while sloth bears (Melursus urcinus) were still in hibernation. Similarly Sal (Shorea robusta or the Reliable timber tree), the area’s dominant tree, did not begin flowering until the first week of May, when it should have been in flower by late March!

Importantly, the above changes do have a bearing on the population density as well as sighting of animals in Corbett’s tourism zones.

Tiger sightings in the Dhikala zone have drastically gone down owing to the untimely and mysterious deaths of four young tigers during the December-January period. Sightings in Jhirna are erratic owing to water shortage issues, while sightings in Bijrani have suffered because of similar reasons. Young and powerful tigers occupy the main water sources while the weaker ones move out to look for water or become opportunistic while taking their share of water from others territory.

LATE BLOOMERS

The delayed flowering of Sal might result in late seed dispersal. But there are other dry and moist decidous trees, associates of the Sal, that also flower at this time. Amaltas (Cassia fistula or Indian Laburnum) flower along with Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo or North Indian Rose Wood), Kusum (Schleichera oleosa or Indian Lac), Haldu (Adina cordifolia or Indian Turmeric) besides Dhak (Butea monsperma or Flame of the Forest).

The Dhak or Pallas’s tree are striking to look at, their red fire flowers visible from a distance. As you approach a Dhak-infested area, the forest appears to have caught fire. Bakuli (Anogeissus latifolia or Indian Axle Wood Tree), one of the associates of Sal also flower along with Semal (Salmalia malabarica or Indian Kappock tree) whose pods burst with flying “Budhias” (a child’s moniker for the floating cotton balls!) The Rohini (Mallotus phillippensis or mark of the Indian married woman tree) has started fruiting and offers excellent relief to the male elephant about to attain its state of ‘Musth’.

TIGER'S TALE

A part of the tiger’s summer routine is to find and secure a water source. Despite the low availability of water, tiger sighting in this period is regular as tigers follow marked routes when reaching water bodies, as is the case with the Patharwa Nulla water source, a stone’s throw from Jim’s Jungle Retreat. A beautiful male leopard near the retreat has also become resident because of water availability near the property.

A similar schedule has also been observed at the high bank or Gorkha Sot while on the way to Dhikala. In Bijrani, waterhole No. 6 and Garjia Sot are the most sought after vantage points for visitors and in Jhirna, a patient wait at the waterhole in Jarh Paharh as well as Kothirao watch tower have yielded good tiger sightings.

Photo: Majid Hussain

ELEPHANT BEAT

With harvesting done, agricultural fields on the park’s peripheries are now barren. But the elephant population continues to try its luck for bamboo outside the forests towards Dhela and Laldhang. Most elephant sightings in the last 20 days or so have occurred outside Jhirna and Bijrani tourism zones. Wild elephant populations, in small and medium-sized herds are seen frequently in the Dhikala zone.

An occasional big tusker can often be sighted in the vicinity of the largely female herds, giving an indication that the first pre-monsoon showers might well induce a fight among the males for their right over a elephant harem.

Serpent Eagle, Photo: Daleep Akoi

BIRDING PARADISE

On the birding front, some of the peninsular migrants such as paradise flycatcher, Indian pitta, brain fever bird or Common Hawk cuckoo, etc. have already arrived. The length of paradise flycatcher tails can be seen increasing as eclipsed males begin to change their colours. The Indian cuckoo or ‘kaphal pako’ bird have brought down the message from the hills that the Indian black current has ripened and its time to return to the hills!

Meantime, the Yellow-footed Green Pigeon and Emerald Dove species have begun their courtship rituals.

The bursting flowering of trees in the forest has kept the insectivorous birds busy, while this is the time for our resident raptor population to breed. One can hear the territorial calls and abrupt flights of the Changeable Hawk Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle, Indian Honey Buzzard and the Pallas’s Fishing Eagle. The smallest raptor of Corbett, the Collared Falconet, also breeds at this time.

The Great Indian Hornbill and the Oriental Pied Hornbill are also seen on the top canopies of semi-evergreen trees. The Great Hornbills are very vocal in these months, looking out for a possible mate. Their call is similar to that of a Langur’s alarm on seeing a tiger!

Despite a lazy and often distressing summertime for the park’s wildlife, there is plenty of animal and bird behaviour to witness, discover and rejoice.

We hope to see you here soon! Thanks and happy sighting!