There are many surveys, approach and data shared in LinkedIn, but this one is a bit unique – a wildlife survey in a Tiger reserve, which i was part of a week ago, as a volunteer.

Importance of Tiger

Tiger sits at the top of the food chain in the forest, and its population in India doubled last 15 years pointing to a robust bio-diversity and conservation program. Tiger is India’s national animal and their protection and growth is an indicator of thriving flora and fauna.

Tiger in a nutshell is the pulse of the wildlife and green cover in India and hence Annual Wildlife Survey is also referred as “Tiger Census”

India is home to 80% of non-captive tigers in the world (over 3000) and roars across 50 Tiger Reserves in 18 states.

Survey overview

Tiger census is conducted twice a year in India – Pre Monsoon during the month of May/June and Post monsoon during the month of November/December.

Forest authorities with few select volunteers are involved in the task of doing a wildlife survey using sighting and camera recordings, over a period of 5-6 days.

Alternative days of Carnivore Sign Survey (walking through a deep swathes of forest to spot animals, pugmarks and other evidences over ~15 kms a day) and line transect (twice a day across a stretch of 2 kms, with a specific counting protocol)

Location

It was my first wildlife survey at a location 250 kms from Bangalore – Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR). STR is home to ~90 tigers (and about 120 leopards) spread across 1,400 Sq.km and comprises of 7 forest divisions, which further split in to 66 smaller range called beats.

Preparation and Packing

Due to recent cyclones – Burevi (Week1, Dec 2020) and Nivar ( Week 4, Nov 2020), post monsoon tiger census got delayed in STR and started on 16 Dec, with just 3 days’ notice, to prepare to go deep inside a forest.

List of items were put together, which can go in a 60 litres backpack plus a 2 seconds camping tent and a yoga mat with a strap (as a sleeping mattress) as a hand-carry.

Covid19 pandemic added few unusual items to pack – hand sanitiser, oximeter and masks, while a torch and hiking shoes are a must. Salt was packed to handle leeches and a lunch box was needed to carry food for day long deep jungle trips.

Prelude

Few dozen forest officers and staff assembled on Day 1 to welcome over 75 volunteers – mostly from wildlife enthusiast groups and college students studying about forest.

Each beat is spread across ~25 Sq Kms is assigned to a volunteer during the intro session, after getting a written undertaking about risks involved in entering a reserved forest. Survey instruction, methodology and following rules were given to us to comply. 

• No cameras allowed (cell phones are allowed, for limited usage)
• No photography of animals or marking (photos may give coordinates for poachers)
• Strict adherence to rules of the beat team leader - a forest officer or guard.
• No private vehicles allowed inside reserved forest area
• Smoking and alcohol consumption is prohibited
• Do not eat anything from the forest (fruits)

Place of stay

I was given a trekking shed in a forest camp area, with few bunk beds along with two more volunteers assigned in our forest range – Thalamalai. There was no electricity, as we walked in and torch helped, to set things up. To take bath in an open area infested with monkeys all around was an experience in itself.

Minimal cooking facility was available to make some basic food, which doubles up as both breakfast and lunch – to be carried in a box, inside the jungle. Most of the water used always had some twigs or minerals in it and one needs to get used to it (herbal water!).

Enter the Forest

A 4X4 took us for wildlife survey early in the morning amidst rain, after a basic breakfast (rice cooked with tomatoes and spice) and dropped at the edge of our assigned forest beat.

Incessant rain when we started from our camp, magically stops when we got down from 4X4 - where all of us stood, on the cargo bed balancing our positions and getting initial pounding on our knees, while speeding through a whiff of fresh air.

Forest 5

We were 5 of us in our beat team – a forest officer with a loaded rifle, 2 Anti-Poaching Workers carrying Machete, a forest guard wielding a stick and myself with a notepad.

Every team takes a selfie and sends an update through a mobile app with GPRS coordinates and starting time to intimate to central control centre, which tracks wildlife census.

All 5 of us, always moved in a formation - 2 in the front are for surveillance looking on both sides and clearing bushes, 3 in the line is our officer who is leading and watching pugmarks together with me, while the last one in our single line formation is a forest guard, who keeps a watch on everyone.

100 feet rule

Deep inside jungle there is no individual communication tool, one walkie talkie for external communication is provided to an assigned person in the group, while rest need to be around - within 100 feet for voice call to reach out, if we get scattered due to any emergency or animal attack.

Once team is splits and goes far away from each other, then getting out of forest for everyone is very difficult. As forest terrain changes all the time - going up and down in an uneven ground, taking care of knees and ankle is vital, and a bit of practice and preparation will help.

Survey and Sighting

Forest suddenly becomes dense and menacing just after 100 metres from nearby road. First sighting was a small Tortoise kill, which seems to have done by “herbivore” deer – who seems to smash it and take some juice out of it. Yes forest seem to have its own set of rules.

Our beat was at an altitude of ~900 metres and landscape changes very quickly to test our agility to adopt to forest terrain. Heavy breathing happens during the first kilometre, before one gets used to fresh air - mixed with herbs/organisms, is something city dwellers are not normally exposed, but it settles down quickly.

Also, there is a thought of being amidst scores of animals in their habitat gives a temporary brain freeze, but confidence of being with team and predators mostly being nocturnal helped.

First 2 members of our team are for surveillance and to clear the path by cutting of bushes and branches to make for rest of the team. Even with that way cleared, thorns are all along the way on both sides to give many bruises and cuts.

Bruises and cuts

Initial stops were to remove thorn from palms – which extends as a natural reaction to remove obstacles, but learning to elbowing through it with a full sleeve and long pant, helped to get moving and keeping pace with rest of the team – but, only after seeing blood on both palms, for quite a few times.  Effects of leeches and ticks will be known when we get back to our camp.

Real Python?

Spotting a large snake moving quickly away from us before taking a picture, could have been a Python or Russel Viper, but finally team agreed to call it us a Russel Viper with something large swollen.

Tusker

Then had an encounter with a single Tusker (a male elephant) wandering alone – a situation mentioned, as the most dangerous one in that forest, so we all become alert. Movement of trees at a distance helped to spot it early, but still we won’t match the pace of an elephant, if it chooses to chase.

 While we had a rifle (some teams also carry crackers to chase elephants away, if they attack), but senior most person in our team, did something unexpected – started speaking loud and saying something like “hey, we are all friends and we want to just walk across to other side”. Whether speaking to a wild elephant helped us to move past or not, but there is a strong view  that, people’s vibes are picked up by animals – like sniffing!

Porcupine and Deer

Porcupine and its spotty spine along a path, led to a funny conversation about receding hairline, during one of pit stop, at a safe area.

Variety of deer and their graceful movements are sight to behold. Deer comes in all shapes, size and color.

Lunch break

Eating packed lunch, next to a large waterhole, surrounded by bamboo forest (elephant hideout) is an experience of a lifetime. Team members took turn to watch,  while a person was having lunch . Though animals drink from waterhole, but we relied on nearby stream to refill our water bottles.

It was interesting to observe the forest we were in, had just 2 colours of vegetation – Green and Brown in various shades, no others colours or flowers were present.

Forest Animal's form factor - Max

Though we call Lion, Tiger and Leopards as Big cats, we also have scores of other animals who are “big” compared to what we see outside a forest.

Being close to nature make most animals look bigger? – that’s the thought crossed while watching Wild Dogs (Dhole), Jungle Cat, Owl, Jungle Fowl, Monkey (Langur), Giant Squirrel and Buffaloes (Gaur) all much bigger, than their breed outside forest.

Big Cats and Predators

Seeing could be momentary, but feeling wild animals presence all around is unforgettable.

Though i could not a “see” a Big cat or a predator, but pugmarks of Tiger, Leopard, Sloth Bear, Wild Dogs and other evidences were all there, which was captured with pictures, GPRS coordinates and through a handwritten note, for further compilation and analysis.

What to See?

Our schedule was cut short, due to an accident in another beat. It would have been thrilling to see big cats in action, but that involves bit of luck or longer stay in a jungle. Meanwhile, there is lot more a forest can offer

• Changing landscape and vegetation in every few kilometres
• Every fallen tree is a work of art – an abstract
• Watch birds and hear their calls, but stay alert
• Clear and dazzling sky in the night

Takeaway

There were stretches of distance and time, when we could not spot anything, but we were all aware that - jungle is watching us all the time and we got to keep moving and alert.

Silence and stillness of forest can be unnerving, seeing and feeling wildlife trigger our pulse racing, vastness and vacuum of jungle is a session on dualism and a delicate balance underscore – Evolve and Survive!

Staying Agile, Focus, Team Work, Executing to Plan, Survival were among many things learned from forest and looking forward to getting back there soon!

Season’s Greetings!