REPORTING FROM INDIA — As the sun comes up in the distance, the cold wind cuts through our light jackets as we bounce along a dusty road in an open-air jeep. The jeep finally arrives on the scene: the entrance to Bandhavgarh National Park.

 

Our jeep is among about 60 others crowded outside waiting for the gates of the park to open at 6:30 a.m. Each jeep is equipped with a naturalist from the park service, a driver and tourists with cameras and binoculars slung around their necks.

 

What is so special about this park? There are roughly 50 wild tigers in this 150 square kilometer designated wilderness park, and it offers one of the best places to see tigers in the wild.

 

As soon as the gates open, jeeps rush forward in no order at all. If you have ever experienced Indian traffic, you know that there are no rules -- comparable to a racing video game.

 

Panthera tigris is an endangered species, but many experts say that India holds the best chance for its survival in the wild.

 

Just over 100 years ago, there were 50,000 wild tigers in India, but according to India’s Environment Ministry, there are less than 1,400 tigers left. These numbers are declining at an alarming rate. According to wildlife biologist, Raghu Chundawat, 20 to 30 tigers have already been lost since the start of 2009, causing the Environment Ministry to declare a “tiger crisis.”

 

The tiger is a source of national pride for India, and the government has a vested interest in keeping the species alive. However, the government compiles the data and releases the numbers, and there is a lot of confusion in the actual tiger population size in India.

 

“If the tiger does go extinct in India, the government won’t admit it,” speculates Dr. David Tonkyn. “There are too many jobs that depend on the health of the tiger population.”  Tonkyn is an ecology professor who has brought students from Clemson University to India for the past six years.

 

Once in the park, the driver careens through the forest, only pausing slightly when someone points out a peacock or a small spotted dear. The jeep veers to the side as another is approaching from the opposite direction, and the drivers exchange a quick conversation in Hindi that ends in both drivers shaking their heads and continuing on their way. The real prize in Bandhavgarh is a tiger. The drivers and the naturalists know that a good tiger sighting will get them a good tip. So they keep their eyes peeled, and listen intently for alarm calls.

 

It might be hard to fathom, but by participating in this madhouse of an activity, we are supporting tiger conservation in India.

 

Amit Sankhala heads India’s Project Tiger conservation effort started by his father in 1972, and he also runs a tourism company. Sankhala explains that tigers bring in tourists and tourists bring in money, and people always need money. “Just like anywhere around the world, money motivates people,” Sankhala said.

 

“If a villager can show you a tiger in the wild and bring home money to feed his family, day after day after day, he has a vested interest in that tiger being alive,” explains Sankhala.

 

Again, the jeep stops to talk to another driver, as the tourists look anxiously at each other and smile across the language barrier. All of a sudden, the driver kicks it into gear, slings around in a three-point turn, and off we go behind the other jeep.

 

Popcorning out of the seats, dodging low lying branches, and choking on dust, we are eager for that first glimpse of a tiger. Unfortunately, what we see first is another crowd of jeeps and three large tourist-clad elephants.

 

Like at an amusement park, the jeeps are in somewhat of a line, and the elephants come up to the jeep, drop their passengers and get new ones. The mahout (elephant driver) steers the reluctant elephant closer and closer to the female tigress.

 

This is what the tourists came for. They are less than 10 feet from a beautiful tiger, on the back of an elephant, in India.

 

Most likely, they will pay to enter the park, hire a driver, hire a naturalist, pay the camera fees, and tip well again tomorrow to try to top this experience.

 

Knowing that tigers are rare makes the sighting of one even more memorable. “It finally hit me that I might be one of the last people to see a tiger in the wild. That might be something of the past in 10 years, or even five years,” said Kate Hausmann, a student traveling from Clemson University.

 

Protecting tigers is more complicated than just bringing in tourists. Poaching and human-animal conflict due to loss of habitat are the main threats to India’s tigers.

 

For many poor people in India, the tiger is worth more dead than alive. “A family can live for a month on just one kill,” explains India native and president of Clemson’s Tigers for Tigers, Krutika Mediwala. Once a tiger is traded for its parts, it is worth between $10,000 and $15,000.

 

Tiger poaching and trade is illegal in India, but it is hard to regulate. Environmental attorney, Ms. Anjana Gosain, works to improve the system to prosecute poachers and traders.

 

There have been few convictions of poachers because of lack of evidence. For example, there are only two labs in India that can investigate tiger deaths.

 

Gosain organizes training for the forest officers in how to deal with poaching cases. The training programs teach the officials how to register a case, how to investigate a case, and how to act as a major witness in the case.

 

Gosain says they have seen results in districts where poachers have previously gone unprosecuted. “We have the resources to get the poachers,” says Gosain. “But the trading is harder to track. We cannot know who is responsible internationally for financing the poaching.”

 

Where do conservationists go from here? “Education and consciousness is the answer,” says Gosain.

 

Gosain is also the CEO of Tiger Trust, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to protect the wild tiger. One of her main projects is to educate a younger generation and involve people neighboring the parks in conservation efforts.

 

Many villagers see the tiger as a threat. There are several people attacked each year, in and around parks.

 

“There has been a feeling of dissatisfaction among the villages because they feel they are being neglected. So, we must teach them that the tiger will help them in the long run,” said Gosain.

 

As part of a program with Tiger Trust, the group of students from Clemson University visited a village school outside of Ranthambore National Park. We were met with shy, curious faces, but as we shared our love and knowledge of the tiger with each other, we found some hope in these children.

 

 

 

“I was surprised by things they were telling us about tiger conservation,” said Clemson student Jessica Johnstone. “They sounded like things I am learning in my classes now.”

 

The students knew that protecting the tiger and protecting the forest went hand in hand, and that by saving the tiger, the forest would be saved. The forest offers many resources to the villages, and helps protect water resources, which might be worth more than money in India.

 

One child even related the tiger and its habitat to a large family living in a small house. “If there are a lot of people in a small house, they will get angry with each other, and it is hard to live with each other. Then people will move out and try to find another house. This is why tigers leave the parks,” she explained.

 

However, while we were spending time with the students, the park rangers’ radios began to go off. A wandering tiger had attacked three people near the perimeter of the park, and the forest staff had to rush off to handle the situation.

 

In this case, the tiger was relocated to a sanctuary adjacent to the park, and equipped with a radio collar so it could be tracked to prevent future conflicts. Often times, though, when there is a conflict between tigers and people, the tiger is brought to a zoo by forest officials, or even killed.

 

Will India be able to act quickly enough to save this magnificent animal before it disappears completely from the wild?

 

 

Tigers for Tigers is an organization at Clemson University devoted to aiding in conservation of the school’s mascot in the wild. The club works mainly with Tiger Trust in India. Each spring break, a class under the direction of David Tonkyn and Louis Breggars, visits national parks in India and directly hands over the money raised by Tigers for Tigers to Tiger Trust.