A paper tiger express

There isn't an alternative to trains slowing down on sensitive tiger corridors, especially at night. Otherwise, the Tiger Express may not have any tigers left to see

In collaboration with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), IR (Indian Railways) has a Tiger Express that covers Udaipur, Chittorgarh and Ranthambore, with a Tiger Safari thrown in for Ranthambore. The package is for four nights and five days. We recently went to Ranthambore (Sawai Madhopur) National Park, though not on Tiger Express or IR’s Tiger Safari. In India, Ranthambore is probably one of the better places to see tigers, depending on time of the year. There is an ongoing all-India tiger census (results will be out in 2019).  According to the last census, in 2014, Ranthambore had 62 tigers. Linking tigers with specific reserves has an element of error. Tigers can saunter over to another sanctuary, apart from examples like a tiger from Ranthambore being relocated to Sariska. Park people we met said Ranthambore now has 67 tigers — 21 male, 20 female and 26 cubs, beyond the park’s carrying capacity. For the cognoscenti, we were lucky and saw T-39 (Mala/Noor), T-57 (Singhsth), T-84 (Arrowhead), T-98 and an unnumbered cub of T-39. There have been famous tigers/tigresses from Ranthambore — Machli Senior, Machli Junior, Krishna, Mala/Noor, Sultan, Dollar male/Zalim. But this column isn’t about tigers, it is about railways. Therefore, let me mention Broken Tail. Machli Junior and Bumburam had two cubs, Slant Ear and Broken Tail.
 
Broken Tail was called that because his tail was broken. A fight with another tiger must have caused a fracture, early on in life. Some tigers are friendlier than others, vis-à-vis visitors. They tend to swagger around and don’t mind being photographed. Therefore, they become more famous. Broken Tail was one of these and there are several of his photographs from Ranthambore, including some by the painter cum photographer, Murali Dhar Parashar. Then, early in 2003, Broken Tail vanished. There is a Darrah Wildlife Sanctuary (now part of Darrah National Park). Other than Ranthambore and Sariska, Darrah (Mukundara Hills) is Rajasthan’s third tiger reserve. But if you want to see tigers in Rajasthan, you are unlikely to go to Darrah. It isn’t known for tigers, though a male tiger (Mirza) has recently been released there. In contrast, Ranthambore had several tigers, even in 2003. Hence, when Broken Tail vanished, it wasn’t initially noticed. There were plenty of tigers to admire and photograph. Then, in 2003, a male tiger turned up in Darrah. Where had this come from? It took some matching to figure out that this was Broken Tail, traversing a distance of around 150 km, somewhat unusual for a tiger. Unusual, but not unknown. Mala’s elder brother, T-38, travelled a similar distance from Ranthambore to surface in Kuno-Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

death trap Animals are often killed through collisions with trains. Railways also have indirect adverse effects on wildlife — such as loss of habitat, pollution

But tragedy followed. The Mumbai-Delhi railway line (with heavy traffic) passes through Kota, adjacent to Darrah. The superfast Rajdhani between the two cities travels at an average speed of 91 km/hour, with a top speed of 140 km/hour. It stops at few stations. A train isn’t a car. When brakes are applied, it takes a while for the train to stop. By then, the train travels more than one km. Early in the morning of July 15, 2003, Broken Tail strayed onto the railway track, in front of the Rajdhani. The loco pilot saw him, in front of the train and slowed, but it was too late. There is a moving documentary by Colin Stafford-Johnson and Salim Ali, titled, “Broken Tail: A Tiger’s Last Journey”. They had filmed Broken Tail and his family earlier, and they now added footage on his journey from Ranthambore to Darrah and his death. The documentary isn’t only about Broken Tail. It is also about poaching, tiger conservation and standard tensions between man and nature. Railways have indirect adverse effects on wildlife too — loss of habitat, pollution. However, animals are also killed directly, through collisions. Among larger animals, elephants, tigers, lions, leopards and bears. Oddly, other than for elephants, I haven’t found any robust figures on such deaths. There do exist some alarming numbers for tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh. But since I am not sure about their validity, I am not quoting them.
 
The Wildlife Conservation Trust has recently launched a mobile-based app called “Roadkills”. When the database builds up, it can be used for all kinds of things. For instance, if you know a stretch of road is prone to such deaths, if you are driving, you can slow down when you approach that stretch. But as the name implies, though it doesn’t preclude railway lines, it is primarily meant for roads. We sometimes don’t realise there are small stretches of railway tracks that actually pass through national parks (Sanjay Dubri, Rajaji, Dudhwa, Buxa, Bhadra). In addition, the NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) has given IR a list of 250 km of railway lines that are threats to tigers (and other wild life). Tigers also move between parks along tiger corridors. Another 86 km of railway lines threaten tiger corridors. Railways aren’t going to go away. Unless we say we don’t care about tigers (and wild life), what do we do? I don’t buy the idea of over-passes and under-passes as viable solutions. Nor are we going to get completely segregated tracks. Therefore, much as we would like IR to take us from Point A to Point B super-fast, I don’t think there is any alternative to trains slowing down on those sensitive sections, especially at night (say 20 km/hour). Otherwise, the IR Tiger Express may not have any tigers left to see.

The author is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.
Views are personal