How the cats revived a glorious past and an insensitive industry
The winter chill was unbearable to take. I was in Sawai Madhopur, a town of near Ranthambore 200 km away from the historic city of Jaipur, founded by Sawai Jaisinghsinghji. With a rented bicycle and armed with my sketchbook, I was on my way to meet a tiger expert of international repute in this sleepy now decrepit town of Sawai Madhopur. King Madhosinghji established this town when he moved his capital from Jaipur to Ranthambore near Sawai Madhopur. Ranthambore, about 5 km from Sawai Madhopur, was the place of the world famous Project Tiger reserve. Ranthambore and its riches had catapulted Sawai Madhopur on the international tourist itinerary. Every year thousands of foreign and a few Indian tourists throng to this sleepy town enroute to Ranthambore. I wonder how this decrepit town once forgotten after the imperial invasion had grown to become a place teeming of international visitors. I was on my way to meet Mr. Fateh Singh Rathore, the first field director of Ranthambore who was one among the founders of Project Tiger, instrumental in putting Ranthambore among the network of Project Tiger reserves, under Mrs. Indira Gandhi's regime. I had already talked to his wife over the phone, when after a period of brief silence the 'Tiger' as Fatehsinghji is popularly known answered the phone. Without any hesitation he invited me over to his home near the Ranthambore reserve to discuss my Project. We set our appointment for an hour after noon that day. As I rode my bicycle up the only small road-over bridge, I could get a view of the entire city. Its rustic settlements tell a tale of a very busy past, wearing a lazy coat of a city in slumber. It’s most enterprising business of hospitality, with numerous tourist lodges and hotels, had not changed after our economic liberalization, though it seemed to have grown tremendously over the years. Other businesses worked as usual as they must have over the past decades, in which grandsons inherited their ancestral businesses after finishing little education the city was capable to provide. The cold January weather compelled most to wear more than the traditional clothing people wear in Rajasthan throughout the year.
As I now scan the city once again, I notice there were pockets of princely architecture, which may have been the residences of the king's courtiers. The forest office, which looked like a rustic village municipal building, was a space adapted from a ramshackle brick building faced with raw lime plaster and painted in brick red. It could be made out that it has been converted from a residence to its present use. The working ambience of the office projected a casual workaday of transactions between tourists and government employees. As I got nearer to the tourist office at the end of the road-over bridge, I saw the tourist officer in-charge waiting on the road having a chat with some locals. There were not many tourist arrivals today by the morning train from Jaipur. The officer waved at me and I reciprocated the same. With some discomfort he smirked, which reminded me of the deal we made yesterday. He traded Rajasthan Tourism pamphlets on Ranthambore with me for a hundred rupees, which were issued free of cost to the tourists.
Looking ahead, the winding road ahead takes one to Alwar, the place of the only veterinary hospital in the city. I had been to Alwar yesterday to meet the chief veterinarian who also headed the veterinary unit of Project Tiger. The hospital was also built in the local non-descript vernacular style of architecture with a large court and cloistered structure along the periphery. The buildings facing the main road were the consultation rooms with the chief veterinarian's residence sited at the back of the property. The public buildings in Sawai Madhopur were all adapted spaces from existing structures with an absence of a driveway or any setback from the main road.
As I cycled ahead the weather felt better or I may have warmed up with the bicycling on the undulating slopes of the road. Maa Farms was still three kilometers away and I took the left split of the Y-junction for Ranthambore road. Ranthambore, this word runs chills down my spine. My maternal native town was in Alipurduar, a small town about 5 miles from the world renowned Buxa Tiger reserve. Tigers and Tiger stories ran in my family. My grandpa held an international hunting license and had some amazing hunting expeditions under his belt, when it was lawful to do so. The one surviving Tiger Skin is still a precious possession of the Bose-Mitra family. My grandpa used to narrate his hunting stories about staking tigers for a hunt while the Tigers were also stalking him in the forest. Such stories led me to develop a similar picture in my mind like I, the unaware innocent protagonist, am being stalked by this smart stealthy animal sitting high rock above me while I go looking to find it. This would send a cold shiver down my back, now aching due to excessive cycling. At the sides of the road were palatial hotels teeming with tourists sunbathing in the front lawns that overlook the road. They were presenting a thrifty dress code that would be very alien to the local Rajasthani. I conjecture that after this they would have a hot-tap water bath,a fancy the local could ill afford, and a luxury the tourists enjoy at the many star hotels in Ranthambore. Then , the tourists would take the hour long tiger-safaris inside the forest. Tigers are very shy animals and these tours inside the core zone of the forest is an invasion of their privacy while it goes about its daily life. The Indian tourism ministry actively promotes these safaris in the name of wildlife tourism. However, the Indian BOF and exchange rate assures that the have-nots living off welfare in the developed world can easily enjoy these treasures, while it is a luxury to our poor and the middle class, at the expense of the best the developing world can offer.
Tourists often take photos and their flash photography jeopardizes the natural behavioral traits of the tigers. There have been incidences of tigers, who have been so provoked with this intrusion in their habitat, having deliberately attacked livestock and people in the neighboring villages etc. One fine day an ignorant, ruthless villager will shoot the animal for his own survival for food and subsistence and push the tiger further towards extinction.
Do we want this happen to our national animal? Does it justify in jeopardizing the existence of our national animal at the expense of foreign exchange earned through wildlife toursim. India is still a developing country and it call ill afford to create a situation where the little funds that is allocated to such programs as 'Project Tiger' are exacerbated by causes , which are still within our control. The funding models for Tiger reserves have to come from other sources, like controlled entry for wildlife filmmakers, tourists and alike.
Yesterday I had been to the reserve, when I met Bob and Sheryl, a British couple in their mid fifties. After we were finished with introductions and "Spice Girls' , I was introduced to a Danish tourist who had been in Ranthambore for a week now to photograph the tiger. He was out of luck for almost a week and had stopped wasting his energy on the other animals that were being occasionally seen along the tour trails, he kept taking repetitively. The bisons, nilgais, chital deers, crocodiles did not interest him anymore. He was waiting for the mighty Tiger to appear and somehow luck was in my favor. During my tour, the mighty cat was seen at two points in the tour. We spotted three tigers in a group, the erie noise of the forest broken by the deathly silence of their presence. My man under observation, the danish tourist armed with his Canon, finished clicking an entire roll of the charming beast who was drinking water from a stream that flows through his own royal kingdom. The Dutch looked quite content at the end of the tour as he would finally move on to his next tour destination having finally seen the tiger.
One has to really see and do a ROI comparison of the wildlife tourism earning and find if it was justified in letting tourists enter the core area of the forest to see tigers. A disruption in their core habitat is even more dangerous to their survival than a secure prohibited habitat as tigers could be displaced into areas where they come in conflict with humans for space and fodder. The one thing that makes me happy is that tourism has been able to keep Sawai Madhopur economy alive. It is really fascinating to see how these cats had earned a reputation for the city and the jungle to have tourists come all over the world. World bodies like WWF spend millions of rupees on protecting these cats. The loss of this top predator is not only a loss of our national symbol but will be a blow that will cascade down to the entire ecosystem that the tiger represents. It is time to rethink on wildlife tourism policies and tourist trails, zones inside these protected reserves.
By now, I had reached very close to Maa Farms where Fatehsinghji lived in a beautiful farmhouse nestled at the cradle of a mountain covered with Dhok forest. Now as I am nearing Maa farms to meet Fatehsinghji, I break into a smile at my thoughts about the tiger and my research. I am assured if this interview did not turn fruitful, I would still have solid reason to proceed with the mission to design a nerve center for Project Tiger
This article is an edited updated version of a similar article by the author that appeared in the annual NASA (National Association of students of Architecture) Convention Magazine held at Chennai in 1998.
As I now scan the city once again, I notice there were pockets of princely architecture, which may have been the residences of the king's courtiers. The forest office, which looked like a rustic village municipal building, was a space adapted from a ramshackle brick building faced with raw lime plaster and painted in brick red. It could be made out that it has been converted from a residence to its present use. The working ambience of the office projected a casual workaday of transactions between tourists and government employees. As I got nearer to the tourist office at the end of the road-over bridge, I saw the tourist officer in-charge waiting on the road having a chat with some locals. There were not many tourist arrivals today by the morning train from Jaipur. The officer waved at me and I reciprocated the same. With some discomfort he smirked, which reminded me of the deal we made yesterday. He traded Rajasthan Tourism pamphlets on Ranthambore with me for a hundred rupees, which were issued free of cost to the tourists.
Looking ahead, the winding road ahead takes one to Alwar, the place of the only veterinary hospital in the city. I had been to Alwar yesterday to meet the chief veterinarian who also headed the veterinary unit of Project Tiger. The hospital was also built in the local non-descript vernacular style of architecture with a large court and cloistered structure along the periphery. The buildings facing the main road were the consultation rooms with the chief veterinarian's residence sited at the back of the property. The public buildings in Sawai Madhopur were all adapted spaces from existing structures with an absence of a driveway or any setback from the main road.
As I cycled ahead the weather felt better or I may have warmed up with the bicycling on the undulating slopes of the road. Maa Farms was still three kilometers away and I took the left split of the Y-junction for Ranthambore road. Ranthambore, this word runs chills down my spine. My maternal native town was in Alipurduar, a small town about 5 miles from the world renowned Buxa Tiger reserve. Tigers and Tiger stories ran in my family. My grandpa held an international hunting license and had some amazing hunting expeditions under his belt, when it was lawful to do so. The one surviving Tiger Skin is still a precious possession of the Bose-Mitra family. My grandpa used to narrate his hunting stories about staking tigers for a hunt while the Tigers were also stalking him in the forest. Such stories led me to develop a similar picture in my mind like I, the unaware innocent protagonist, am being stalked by this smart stealthy animal sitting high rock above me while I go looking to find it. This would send a cold shiver down my back, now aching due to excessive cycling. At the sides of the road were palatial hotels teeming with tourists sunbathing in the front lawns that overlook the road. They were presenting a thrifty dress code that would be very alien to the local Rajasthani. I conjecture that after this they would have a hot-tap water bath,a fancy the local could ill afford, and a luxury the tourists enjoy at the many star hotels in Ranthambore. Then , the tourists would take the hour long tiger-safaris inside the forest. Tigers are very shy animals and these tours inside the core zone of the forest is an invasion of their privacy while it goes about its daily life. The Indian tourism ministry actively promotes these safaris in the name of wildlife tourism. However, the Indian BOF and exchange rate assures that the have-nots living off welfare in the developed world can easily enjoy these treasures, while it is a luxury to our poor and the middle class, at the expense of the best the developing world can offer.
Tourists often take photos and their flash photography jeopardizes the natural behavioral traits of the tigers. There have been incidences of tigers, who have been so provoked with this intrusion in their habitat, having deliberately attacked livestock and people in the neighboring villages etc. One fine day an ignorant, ruthless villager will shoot the animal for his own survival for food and subsistence and push the tiger further towards extinction.
Do we want this happen to our national animal? Does it justify in jeopardizing the existence of our national animal at the expense of foreign exchange earned through wildlife toursim. India is still a developing country and it call ill afford to create a situation where the little funds that is allocated to such programs as 'Project Tiger' are exacerbated by causes , which are still within our control. The funding models for Tiger reserves have to come from other sources, like controlled entry for wildlife filmmakers, tourists and alike.
Yesterday I had been to the reserve, when I met Bob and Sheryl, a British couple in their mid fifties. After we were finished with introductions and "Spice Girls' , I was introduced to a Danish tourist who had been in Ranthambore for a week now to photograph the tiger. He was out of luck for almost a week and had stopped wasting his energy on the other animals that were being occasionally seen along the tour trails, he kept taking repetitively. The bisons, nilgais, chital deers, crocodiles did not interest him anymore. He was waiting for the mighty Tiger to appear and somehow luck was in my favor. During my tour, the mighty cat was seen at two points in the tour. We spotted three tigers in a group, the erie noise of the forest broken by the deathly silence of their presence. My man under observation, the danish tourist armed with his Canon, finished clicking an entire roll of the charming beast who was drinking water from a stream that flows through his own royal kingdom. The Dutch looked quite content at the end of the tour as he would finally move on to his next tour destination having finally seen the tiger.
One has to really see and do a ROI comparison of the wildlife tourism earning and find if it was justified in letting tourists enter the core area of the forest to see tigers. A disruption in their core habitat is even more dangerous to their survival than a secure prohibited habitat as tigers could be displaced into areas where they come in conflict with humans for space and fodder. The one thing that makes me happy is that tourism has been able to keep Sawai Madhopur economy alive. It is really fascinating to see how these cats had earned a reputation for the city and the jungle to have tourists come all over the world. World bodies like WWF spend millions of rupees on protecting these cats. The loss of this top predator is not only a loss of our national symbol but will be a blow that will cascade down to the entire ecosystem that the tiger represents. It is time to rethink on wildlife tourism policies and tourist trails, zones inside these protected reserves.
By now, I had reached very close to Maa Farms where Fatehsinghji lived in a beautiful farmhouse nestled at the cradle of a mountain covered with Dhok forest. Now as I am nearing Maa farms to meet Fatehsinghji, I break into a smile at my thoughts about the tiger and my research. I am assured if this interview did not turn fruitful, I would still have solid reason to proceed with the mission to design a nerve center for Project Tiger
This article is an edited updated version of a similar article by the author that appeared in the annual NASA (National Association of students of Architecture) Convention Magazine held at Chennai in 1998.
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