Wildlife Conservation India Project #34315

Water for Bandhavgarh's Tigers - Reducing Conflict

by Tigers4Ever

Water for Bandhavgarh's Tigers - Reducing Conflict

Project Report | Sep 10, 2020
More than just Water

By Dr. Corinne Taylor-Smith | Project Leader

Tigress and Cub at Tigers4Ever Waterhole

Three months has seemingly flown by, for the team in the UK at least. Like the rest of the world our biggest daily challenge is the ever advancing impact of COVID19. We feel well practiced now in that we’ve had six months to adapt but we know that it’s not the same everywhere and we’re mindful of this as we write. I think it is fair to say that 2020 has presented some of the biggest challenges that most of us will face in our lifetimes and it’s not over yet.

Since our last project newsletter we’ve had the driest July on record in Bandhavgarh, followed by the wettest August for 40 years, who knows what September will bring? Right now we are working in collaboration with some geologists who are monitoring the patterns of surface water from the monsoon rains to see how much flood water is simply lost to run away and whether in future some of this lost water can be recycled to improve underground water sources. We can’t just tap into all the underground water in the National Park to sustain year round water for wildlife without thinking how it can be replenished as monsoonal rains become more erratic year on year. If we want wild tigers to have year-round water in 100 years we need to capture and recycle as much rainwater as possible as it falls. We have already started this process by lining new waterholes with loam soil which improves the water holding and retention capacity of the waterholes in the hottest dry weather of the summers; and by ensuring that soak away systems return any overflow water around the waterholes to the underground water-streams and wells. In future we will look to installing recharge pits alongside future waterholes where it can be demonstrated that excess floodwaters from the monsoon rainfall will be able to recharge underground water sources from which we will pump water to the surface throughout the rest of the year. This is quite an exciting development for sustainable water for the future of Bandhavgarh’s tigers and we hope to be in a position to tell you and show you more about this in our next report.

Thanks to your amazing support over the last three months our micro-project for the drinking water tanks was fully funded and we managed to provide four water tanks so that patrollers in remote locations have safe access to clean drinking water. We have also managed to raise another US$173 towards our next permanent wildlife waterhole project, which, given the challenges everyone is facing right now, is amazing too. Whilst our focus has been on keeping wild tigers out of poachers’ snares and traps during the peak poaching season, which isn’t over yet, we haven’t forgotten our promise to build the next permanent wildlife waterhole, nor the tigers which it will benefit. As the monsoon rains will draw to a close in just a few weeks’ time, we are now thinking about getting our waterhole plans back on track, we’ve almost covered the cost of drilling a new bore-well for the pump, lining pipes for the well and labour costs, and if we can raise another £1000 (US$1330) in the next month we hope to be able to work with a potential corporate partner to build the next permanent wildlife waterhole in late October/early November, subject of course to any COVID19 restrictions which may impact our timetable. Nonetheless we’d like to be in a position to commence work in late October if it is logistically possible.

We don’t want COVID19 to destroy the progress we have made in wild tiger conservation over the last 10 years and we want to ensure that our efforts to give wild tigers a wild future can keep gaining momentum. In spite of the challenges we have all faced over the last six months, your collective spirit and generosity has been truly inspiring. Your donations and continued support over this time has strengthened our hope that when we pull through this pandemic, wild tigers will still thrive in the jungles of Bandhavgarh, and we will be able to carry on giving them a wild future. So on behalf of those tigers, we’d like to thank you for not forgetting that without your help we wouldn’t be able to keep them safe.

It is already September and since our last report so many things have happened but not all good.

The Risks to wild Tigers escalated as the COVID19 Lockdown began

Human-Tiger conflict has increased with another tiger attack on a man in the last week, thankfully he survived and is out of hospital now;
Wild elephants have decimated several paddy fields ruining the rice crops of multiple villagers which will leave them with both food and income shortages in the coming months;
Human encroachment continues to increase as precious forest resources are plundered to keep food on the table for families who haven’t had paid employment since 25 March 2020; and
Wild tigers are susceptible to COVID19 infection transmitted by humans.

But it’s not all bad news for wild tigers

On a positive note, there have been some successes too:

We managed to raise £130 (US$173) towards our next waterhole construction, due to fantastic support from you all during, which means that we’ve raised £4122 (US$5482) of our £10560 (US$13250) target to date;
We haven’t lost any wild tigers to poachers (for 47 months) or retaliatory poisonings (for 5 years and 3 months);
The tiger cubs we told you about last time are doing well so we still need to protect nine more tigers now;
We’ve also provided safe drinking water tanks at four remote patrolling camps so that patrollers don’t have to fill their drinking water bottles at the same waterholes used by tigers and other wild animals, thanks to your help. (See also: https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/water-for-bandhavgarhs-tiger-protectors/ for more details);
We still plan to put the next permanent waterhole for wild tigers in a critical dry location as soon as we have sufficient funds and the lockdown restrictions are lifted in India;
Our patrols are essential workers and continue to protect wild tigers.

How you can help

We don’t know for certain how long this crisis will last, but what we do know is that we need to quadruple our efforts to keep wild tigers safe. It is normal to double our efforts throughout the peak poaching season, but we could be facing another six months of the same difficult conditions we’ve set out in this project report. So the best way to help us keep wild tigers safe is to fund our projects today, because tomorrow might be too late.

Next week (14 – 18 September, 2020), you can also support our GlobalGiving Little by Little matched funding campaign. All week, any donations up to $50 (£38) will be matched by 50% bonus funds, at no extra cost to you. Participate in our GlobalGiving campaign here https://goto.gg/34315, and remember that all new monthly donations will receive a 100% bonus match on month four too.

Here are some of the ways your money helps us to save wild tigers:

- £20 ($26) will help to drill 2 metres (6.5 feet) of bore-well to access underground water;

- £75 ($95) can pay a team of workers to prepare a site for a new waterhole for wild tigers;

- £380 ($475) will fund 6% of a solar system to bring underground water to the surface.

Every donation, no matter how large or small, helps us increase and protect the tiger population. Thank you on behalf of the wild tigers, which you are helping us to keep safe; and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing equipment and labour for our waterhole projects; we couldn’t do this without you. Thanks to you, the tigers can live peacefully and those who live beside them can protect their livelihoods.

Any and all donations are welcome https://goto.gg/34315.

If you can’t afford to donate perhaps you could become a become a Tigers4Ever fundraiser, here: https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/fundraisers/start/?fundraiser.projids=34315 and ask your friends, colleagues and family to donate to your fundraiser to help us keep wild tigers safe.

Links:

Permalink

Jun 8, 2020
Water for Life

By Dr. Corinne Taylor-Smith | Project Leader

Affectionate moment between Tigress & her cub

This is possibly one of the hardest project update reports which I have had to write. Three months ago we were filled with optimism that we could raise sufficient funds to complete another major waterhole for wild tigers before the drought season took its toll and before human-tiger conflict peaked. Then came along COVID19, and as you already know it changed everything. Optimism turned to fear, not just for when or even if things would ever return to the normal we knew before, but for the impact on the wild tigers and 10 years of our efforts to give them a wild future.

In spite of the new challenges we face, your collective spirit and generosity has been truly inspiring. Your donations and continued support over the past three months, especially during the Climate Action Campaign, has strengthened our hope that when we pull through this pandemic, wild tigers will still thrive in the jungles of Bandhavgarh, and we will be able to carry on giving them a wild future. So on behalf of those tigers, we’d like to thank you for not forgetting that without your help we wouldn’t be able to keep them safe.

It is already June and since our last report so many things have happened but not all good.

The Risks to wild Tigers escalated as the COVID19 Lockdown began

Human-Tiger conflict has increased with three separate tiger attacks on people leaving two people dead (including a patroller) and one person critically injured in hospital;
Forest fires started by careless individuals have decimated several kilometres of forest habitat;
Human encroachment is at a year high as precious forest resources are plundered to keep food on the table for families who haven’t had paid employment since 25 March 2020; and
Science tells us that wild tigers are susceptible to COVID19 infection transmitted by humans.

But it’s not all bad news for wild tigers

On a positive note, there have been some successes too:

We managed to raise £1068 ($1335) towards our next waterhole construction, largely due to fantastic support from you all during climate action week, which means that we’ve raised £3939 ($4923) of our £10560 (US$13250) target to date;
We haven’t lost any wild tigers to poachers (for 44 months) or retaliatory poisonings (for 5 years);
We heard this week that a tigress has given birth to five cubs and another has four new cubs so there are nine more tigers for us to protect now;
We managed to raise sufficient funds to get an emergency essentials parcel to the family of 38 year old patroller Chinta who was tragically killed by a tiger just 50 metres (165 feet) from a patrolling camp. We’ve also obtained a high quality sewing machine and 20 metres (66 feet) of premium quality materials to enable Chinta’s widow and family to rebuild their lives with a small clothes making business.
We’ve also been raising funds to provide safe drinking water tanks at four remote patrolling camps so that patrollers don’t have to fill their drinking water bottles at the same waterholes used by tigers and other wild animals. (See also: https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/water-for-bandhavgarhs-tiger-protectors/ for more details);
We still plan to put the next permanent waterhole for wild tigers in a critical dry location as soon as we have sufficient funds and the lockdown restrictions are lifted in India;
Our patrols are essential workers and continue to protect wild tigers.

How you can help

On 15 July 2020, you can also support our GlobalGiving Bonus Day matched funding campaign. All day, any donations above $100 (£82) will be matched by on a tiered basis, at no extra cost to you. Participate in our GlobalGiving campaign here https://goto.gg/34315, and remember that all new monthly donations will receive a 100% bonus match on month four too.

Here are some of the ways your money helps us to save wild tigers:

- £20 ($26) will help to drill 2 metres (6.5 feet) of bore-well to access underground water;

- £75 ($95) can pay a team of workers to prepare a site for a new waterhole for wild tigers;

- £380 ($475) will fund 6% of a solar system to bring underground water to the surface.

Any and all donations are welcome https://goto.gg/34315.

Tiger cub in Tigers4Ever Waterhole

Links:

Permalink

Feb 11, 2020
It's Almost Drought Season Again

By Dr. Corinne Taylor-Smith | Project Leader

Tiger in the Shade as the Temperatures Rise

It’s Almost Drought Season Again

Wow, it’s February already! It doesn’t seem five minutes since Christmas and New Year but if we’ve learnt one thing over the last ten years, it is that every day brings a new challenge in wild tiger conservation; and because of this time really does fly by. I can’t start this project report, without thanking you all for your amazing support during our GivingTuesday and YearEnd fundraising campaigns. We know that Christmas is one of the most expensive times of year for many people, but your generosity has enabled us to raise £587.76 (US$774.49) for our waterhole project alone!

In December, we conducted surveys out at the two potential waterhole sites mentioned in our last report, and the good news is that both are suitable for solar-powered bore-well systems to provide year round water for wild tigers and other wildlife. As February progresses, the average daily temperatures increase and with the hotter days, the rivers, streams, pools, lakes and other surface water locations start to dry out. Deer, which are native prey for wild tigers, need drinking water to help with the digestion of their herbivorous diet. When the natural water resources are dry, the deer will often wander into the villages in search of drinking water from the puddles which surround the village wells. The deer, unfortunately, don’t stop at just drinking water, because the forest grasslands have become parched and leaves from the trees have dried and fallen to the ground, so the deer see the crops in the villages as a new source of food.

It is not uncommon for villagers to lose up to 37% of their annual income from the loss of crops raided by these herbivores (PLOS One Article). Sadly, the human-animal conflict doesn’t stop at crop raiding, as predators follow their prey into the villages and when the deer run away the domesticated livestock just stand in the paddocks and fields continuing to graze, they are oblivious to the fact that they are now on the menu; and in the blink of an eye a cow, bullock, goat, etc., is taken for the predator’s next meal. Easy pickings, these animals don’t run away! The tigers and leopards now have new prey! It is so easy to hunt these animals which don’t run away so why bother chasing deer or wild boar? Some unfortunate villagers lose up to 48% of their livestock to habitual predators annually! A frightening statistic of human-animal conflict and one, which if not addressed, will threaten the future existence of wild tigers in the area.

Our waterholes seek to reduce this risk, if we can provide year round water for the prey animals; we can keep them out of the villages and reduce the risk of them raiding crops; but not only that, we can also reduce the risk of tigers and leopards following their prey into the villages and taking livestock instead. If the villagers don’t suffer excessive losses due to human-animal conflict, they are far more likely to accept living with wild tigers and other animals on the fringes of their homes. Thus it is more likely that wild tigers will have wild futures.

It is more than a year since we completed our last wildlife waterhole project, and although this is helping to keep up to 33 tigers including cubs away from the villages, but we still need to do something about the remaining two thirds of the wild tiger population to ensure that we can give them wild futures too. Over the last year, we have been working very hard to try to find a collaborative partner to help us deliver more waterholes in a shorter period of time, although we are making some progress in this area, we still need the help of our loyal supporters to help us deliver our next waterhole project. Without your help we won’t be able to start work on our next waterhole before the drought season takes hold. It is a lot to ask but if everyone who received this project report donated £260 (US$350) each we would be able to start work on our next waterhole within a month. We know that some of you are runners, swimmers and keen cyclists and as the weather improves you’ll be keen to get out more so could we ask you to become a Tigers4Ever fundraiser https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/fundraisers/start/?fundraiser.projids=34315 and ask your friends, work colleagues and family to donate to your fundraiser in lieu of sponsoring your activity, please? Remember, once a tiger becomes a habitualised predator of domestic livestock it will create human-tiger conflict with every kill and every angry farmer will only tolerate so much, so by delivering more waterholes we are reducing this risk and improving the long term survival chances of wild tigers in Bandhavgarh.

In recent years, the hot drier weather has been arriving earlier and earlier; rivers and streams which once had a healthy flow of water until late February have dried up before January drew to a close. Lakes and ponds are also beginning to dry up, as plentiful water is replaced by long sandy banks leading to either a small puddle or a dry sandy basin. As the dry season takes hold, human-animal conflict will increases day by day as herbivores enter the villages in search of water and feast on the crops whilst there. Predators will inevitably follow and kill the livestock which lacks the instinct to run away. If it happens just once, the farmers and villagers who suffer the loss might be appeased by the compensation, but it will set a precedent for the wildlife which has discovered an easy source of food and thus angry humans are moved to take matters into their own hands. Some villagers who lose almost everything to these raids, set wire snares and traps to stop future raids, whilst others poison the carcasses of their dead livestock to kill the tigers or leopards (and their cubs) when they return to finish their meals.

Our experience tells us that prevention is better than compensation and our permanent wildlife waterholes provide a means of prevention. When prey animals have adequate water resources inside the protected areas of the national park they don’t need to enter the villages to search for it. Likewise, if the prey hasn’t wandered away the predators will have plenty of food nearby and won’t need to enter the villages to look for it. By providing year round water, we help to keep wildlife including tigers away from traps and snares; AND eliminate retaliatory poisonings by villagers disgruntled by the loss of their livestock. There will always be exceptions but by keeping these to a minimum and working with the authorities to ensure the villagers receive prompt and adequate compensation, we are keeping wild tigers alive.

It is five months until the start of the monsoon rains, when these water sources will replenish naturally, in the interim tigers and their prey will be dependent on the waterholes sourced from underground streams and wells, but tiger-tiger conflict is an issue too. Tigers find themselves competing for the same prey at the same waterholes and when there is insufficient to go round, tigers will fight each other for prey, for territory, for a mate, or just for dominance. These fights are often short but brutal and it is not uncommon for one tiger to die from the inflicted wounds. We don’t want to seem like it is all doom and gloom, but we have to face facts we are witnessing an unprecedented cub survival rate right now which means that tiger numbers are at the highest for over 30 years, but tigers need space, prey and water to flourish. Together we can give them what they need if we can deliver up to ten more permanent waterholes, starting with the next.

To date, we have raised £2871 (US$3790) of our £10560 (US$13250) target to complete our next waterhole so we really need your help to enable us to start work before the drought takes hold and human-animal conflict becomes the norm. It is a huge ask, especially after Christmas, but if each of our supporters could help us to raise £260 (US$350) each then we could start work on our next waterhole which could benefit up to 16 wild tigers including cubs in next few weeks. Each £400 (US$500) donation helps us to fund 6% of a solar-powered pump system to bring underground water to the surface for wild tigers. Without these funds, starting this vital work will be delayed and we will be at the mercy of the weather as to when the natural water resources run dry. The good news is that GlobalGiving’s Little By Little Campaign is on the way (23-27 March 2020), and any new unique donations up to £38 (US$50) which we receive online during the campaign for our waterhole project at: https://goto.gg/34315 will qualify for a matched funding bonus of 50% during that week (on donations above £38/US$50 will receive 50% matched bonus funds to a maximum of $25 throughout the campaign). There are also bonus prizes to be won for the projects with the most unique donors and most funds raised, but we need 20+ unique donors to qualify for one of these.

We know that not everyone can afford a large donation but we don’t want you to feel like you can’t help; every donation which we receive will have an impact for wild tigers no matter how large or small the donation is. So please, don’t hesitate to help, the drought season will take hold before we know it and without water wild tigers lives will be at risk. Please also share our project link: https://goto.gg/34315 with your family, friends, colleagues and especially when you are posting on social media.

We will continue our quest to find a major donor or project sponsor, in the meantime, but have no fear, if we find a major donor and achieve our fundraising target we’ll be able to build not one but two permanent wildlife waterholes before the 2020 drought season takes hold.

All our waterholes are constructed with the environment in mind; we use solar powered pumps to avoid water tankers polluting the jungle; and soak away systems to ensure excess water returns to its underground source. So by helping us to provide drinking water for wild tigers you’re also helping to reduce the impact of climate change and g to reduce human-animal conflict in the jungles of central India:https://goto.gg/34315.

Thank you on behalf of the wild tigers, which you are helping us to keep safe; and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing equipment and labour for our waterhole projects; we couldn’t do this without you.

Young Tiger with a Deer Kill

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.