Three Men in India

DSWF sent me to India with two other 40-year-old fathers. A ‘stag do’ for divorcees? One where most of the groom’s friends baulked at the extravagance
of a trip to India? Or worse still, an utter disregard for one’s paternal responsibilities (this piece is dedicated to our utterly glorious and stunningly kind spouses)? No, this trip was undertaken wholly in the interest of international conservation. My handlers – tasked with preventing me from stroking the tigers – were Roddy Hamblin, DSWF’s then Chief Operating Officer, and Lawrence Avery, DSWF’s Head of Programmes & Policy. Not one of us had visited India before; proof, if it were needed, that DSWF prioritises sending your money to where it is truly required, rather than sending their employees on “child-less jollies” (did I mention that this is dedicated to our thoroughly amazing partners?)

Conducting occasional audits of how DSWF funds are truly spent on the ground is essential. Most of this is accomplished through form-filling and online conferences. Ultimately, however, there is no better way to achieve this than spending a few days with DSWF’s field partners in person. Even better is to do it in the habitats that these amazing people help recover and preserve, surrounded by the species that make our planet such a wonder. So that’s what we did.
The two partner projects we were here to witness first-hand were:

1.Aaranyak: DSWF funds Aaranyak’s protection of tigers and greater one-horned rhinos in and around Kaziranga Natonal Park. We directly support anti-poaching dog patrols and education initiatives with local schools, both of which are wholly run by Aaranyak.

2. Wildlife Trust of India (WTI): DSWF funds the WTI’s Rapid Acton Plans—think Thunderbirds but for rare species. Rather than marionetes grabbing other puppets from blazing infernos, it’s WTI’s conservatonists and ecologists saving everything from pangolins to tree frogs, from elephants to slow lorises. You name it, if it needs rapid assistance, WTI (with DSWF funds) leaps into acton. (It’s really cool!)

In this two-part blog, I hope to share a little bit about the trip, introduce you to the key players, and highlight where my expectations came head to head with firsthand discoveries.

PART ONE: Aaranyak: (Kaziranga National Park, Assam.)

We could see Everest from the plane shortly before coming in to land at Guwahati, the Assamese state capital. A couple of hours drive North, and you’re in Bhutan; due east, you’ll quickly reach Myanmar, but our northeasterly drive would take us on a direct course as if heading for the Chinese border. Our final destination was Kaziranga National Park: 25 miles long, 8 miles wide and sitting plum on the Brahmaputra floodplain. Perhaps it doesn’t need spelling out, but sitting flush on the India/China/Bhutan border is no small source of concern for those focused on trying to quell the illegal trade of live wildlife trafficking across international jurisdictions.

Our host and guide – from collecting us in Guwahati right up until he saw us safely back to the Airport four days later – was Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar. Bibhab, like every Indian environmentalist we would meet, is obsessed with birds. He took his doctorate here in Guwahati – on waterfowl – and proudly declares that the position of the white-winged wood duck as the State Bird of Assam is almost wholly down to him. I can believe it. Bibhab is whipsmart, super canny, yet incredibly soft when it comes to the natural world – especially the bits of the natural world that are feathery and hang around lakes. Bibhab is the CEO of Aaranyak – a word derived from the Sanskrit for “of the forest”.

Dedicated to Preserving and Restoring Ecological Balance

Aaranyak is dedicated to preserving and restoring the ecological balance within N.E. India through every means possible, whether that be through community projects, education initiatives, antipoaching patrols or liaising with governmental bodies. Their approach to conservation is truly holistic. This approach is an extension of Bibhab’s view of life; this became increasingly clear following our 5-hour drive east – on “good” roads – to Kaziranga. You learn a lot about a man when you’re stuck in a car with him and flanked outside by a combination of roaming cattle and an apparent lack of driving regulations.

The Brahmaputra River, the largest river in India, flows right through the national park. As such, the land is nutritiously rich for much of the year and thoroughly submerged for the rest of it. We were to see evidence of whole settlements built to try and weather the seasonal floods (many houses are deliberately temporary, rebuilt following each extreme flood event, whilst others sit atop stilts). Equally, these communities are adapted to a life where dynamic megafauna, seeking the safety of high-ground forestland lying further outside the park boundaries, will be forced by rising flood waters through the centre of townships. The floods are getting worse. In part due to climate change but also because of changes to the river’s course upstream (across national borders) caused by damming – no river this large is managed solely by one country. But the blurred lines between the human community and forest wildlife have always been such. Unlike in the UK, people here live with wild animals, whether that be venomous snakes in rice fields, or langur monkeys raiding a fruit tree.

A Crash of Rhinos (Collective Noun)

We got our first sight of the huge flood plain (at this time of year lush with grass) as the sun was setting. Immediately, we were confronted by more rhinoceroses than I have ever seen in one place at one time. Not just 10, but maybe 50 or 60?! Roddy reckoned 80. There was no way to properly count – I was too preoccupied with trying to lift my jaw up from the floor.

From a British perspective, the only analogy I can muster is that the horned animals here were as plentiful as cattle grazing a meadow. But these were free-roaming greater one-horned rhino, not a Friesian dairy herd. In such numbers, in one place, I was perversely starting to take their presence for granted. They are slightly smaller than the African White Rhino, just as ‘grumpy’ as the African Black, and as their name suggests, they hold just one horn.

Kaziranga holds 50% of the entire world’s population of this unique and irreplaceable species. I could now spend a paragraph or seven going into the AMAZING cuisine, and the incredible welcome received from all we met; but that’s for a different time, and a different blog. I’ll also resist taking you through the lists of all the Assamese species Roddy, Lawrence and I encountered; just to say – WOW! What a treat it would be to live in a country with such dynamic and omnipresent biodiversity (and, obviously, the scale of issues that need to be tackled, but yet tackling them they seem to be.)

Putting People at the Heart of Conservation

So, what did we do, and who did we meet? Our next four days were spent getting up to speed on how Aaranyak functions and how they (with DSWF support) are working effectively to protect the Rhinos, the Tigers, and, by proxy, much more besides.

We met Dr Firoz Ahmed on the eve of Bihu – an Indian harvest festival. Firoz is a conservation biologist. He introduced us to Aaranyak’s main field office in Kaziranga. It was staffed in no small part by members of the local community, all of whom had graciously stuck around to meet us, to offer us bonafide Assam tea, to feed us festive sweets, all before heading off to celebrate Bihu throughout the night and into the weekend.

Firoz has noticed that the local communities harbour a certain amount of trepidation when it comes to trusting large organisations or governmental bodies. As such, Firoz’ fervent belief is that for positive change to prove persistent, the local communities have to have ownership – to be a major part of conservation efforts. As such, Aaranyak provides reliable, constant and friendly contacts for community members for whenever they face concerns about the local area and its inhabitants (bipedal or other). This pastoral approach has interwoven Aaranyak’s environmental core messaging into that of local day-to-day existence, with efforts such as supporting a local community store, and having regular face-to-face meetings. As far as the communities are concerned – people who are mostly farmers – Aaranyak’s presence here is a constant one and a positive one. From this groundwork, much good can be built. Arif Hussain heads up the Rhino Research and Conservation Division (and, as with Bibhab, is also obsessed with birds). Arif led us out into the park one day. Sure, we saw tigers and elephants and rhinos… but, crikey riley, far more exciting to Arif were the migratory birds that England gets to borrow slightly later in the year. (To be fair, we saw well over 100 different species of birds on this trip – everything from bee-eaters to vultures – so please don’t think
I’m derogating my fellow birders.)

As a boy, Arif was a recipient of Aaranyak’s “Rhino and Tiger Go To School” outreach projects. He then went on to volunteer for the charity before ultimately rising up through the ranks. As such, Arif stands as proof of the outreach project’s efficacy: the boy who became an environmentalist. He speaks with no small amount of pride for how effective Aaranyak is at inspiring the area’s young people. But, as great as Firoz and Arif are – and they very much are – Bibhab’s pride and joy, his favourite part of all aspects of Aaranyak, appear not to be human! Rather, it is the Belgian Malinois dogs that Aaranyak trains for anti-poaching patrols. Their jaws act as a powerful deterrent, but their noses operate perfectly, helping authorities locate the illegal entry and exit points to the park that poachers use at night to seize rhino horn or tiger skin. Such is the success of these dog patrols that Aaranyak Malinois have been known to moonlight directly with the police force. A demonstration of their skills, both as deterrent and detective, was put on for us upon our return to Guwahati. They’re utterly brilliant dogs!

Historic Declines and Current Threats

Hunting and agricultural development reduced the range of the greater one-horned rhino significantly. By the early 1990s, the global population stood at around 1,870 individuals. The world now holds over 4,000. Over 2,000 of which are in Kaziranga. In fact, Kaziranga has little holding capacity for rhinos remaining. Aaranyak now serves as an advisory organisation in translocating additional rhinos to the (relatively) nearby Manas National Park. (Indeed,
Bibhab, as one of the leading voices in Indian rhino conservation, has co-edited the book “Rhinos of the World: Ecology, Conservation and Management” – well worth a read.)

Rhinos are doing very well in India – but poaching is still a threat. Two were lost last year, and history shows us that it doesn’t take much loosening of the reins to allow an acceleration of these figures.

David Shepherd’s Influence and DSWF’s Ongoing Work

The Kaziranga rhino population also benefits indirectly from another familiar name – our very own David Shepherd. In 1973, David Shepherd created the artwork “Tiger Fire” to raise money for Indira Gandhi in launching her “Project Tiger” initiative. It was David’s first major attempt at directly using his artwork for the betterment of animal conservation. Sales raised around £127,000 (over £1.5m in today’s money) and was obviously a sign of things to come. Tigers were declared the national animal of India, and individual states were made responsible for preparing tiger conservation plans. Laws were enacted demanding states maintain healthy populations of the big stripey cats, as well as co-predators and prey animals. Initially, 9 tiger reserves were set up; there are now 57. Kaziranga was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006, and with that designation came more money and protection. Although initially designed for supporting tigers, this protection also benefits the greater one-horned rhino. India now holds 75% of the world’s tigers, almost 3,700 individuals – and I can attest to the fact that there are certainly tigers in Kaziranga and that they are magnificent creatures!

Rehabilitation and Conservation

Before leaving Kaziranga, Bibhab took us to the Wildlife Trust of India’s Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation. Run by Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, the centre was established in 2002, and has seen over 5,000 animals enter the premise, with nearly 60% released back to the wild; everything from leopards to elephants, cobras to macaques, rhinos to tigers.

On our visit, looking on from a distance, we were lucky enough to witness four orphan elephants fed by bottle, before running off back into the jungle to rejoin what will hopefully become part of their new herd structure. I could write a whole blog on the pressures upon elephants in this habitat and the great lengths that people like Bhaskar go to to effectively rehabilitate every single orphaned elephant. It literally takes years. (You’ll find a podcast
about this somewhere familiar very soon…)

But to bring us full circle, most of these animals are left injured or orphaned, or stranded where they really shouldn’t be (like the time a tiger ended up in an unsuspecting civilian’s bedroom) as a direct result of the flooding of the Brahmaputra. Time and seasonal change is as constant as ever; the passage from the wetlands is a journey these animals have made for generations, but there never used to be so many roads or towns or scared people barricading their safe passage. Much of what Aaranyak is doing is trying to educate the people about this natural Animalia flow, but it is up to the WTI and Bhaskar to help support those animals that cannot find safe passage.

Look out for the second part of this project diary from David coming very soon.

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