My Impressions of India: Corbett, Tigers and Lions
By Colin McClean
I have been fascinated by Indian wildlife since I was a child. From the age of ten I read and re read Jim Corbett s descriptions of the jungles of Kumaon as he tracked his man eaters with extraordinary skill and courage. Sambars belled and leopards coughed in my imagination and I longed to experience the sal forests and banyan trees in real life. However for many years life and family got in the way. India is a long and expensive distance from the UK and a career in conservation and land management is rarely lucrative. It was some 40 years after I first read Jim Corbett’s books that I at last stood in the pre dawn dark listening to the call to prayer in Ramnagar and waiting for the jeep that would take us into the Corbett National Park. I will always remember the beauty of that morning as it heralded one of the best days of my life.
In a lifetime spent in Nature, Corbett is one of the most beautiful, bountiful places I have had the honour to experience. The diversity of habitats is impressive. Riverbanks, grasslands, forests of all types all amidst rocky outcrops and hills. There are animals everywhere you look and a breathtaking variety of birds. It’s much, much more than a tiger reserve but tigers are an umbrella species in the sense that protecting tigers and their habitat effectively protects an entire ecosystem. Tigers generate strong emotional responses in many of us. I could happily have spent days revelling in the glory of Corbett without seeing any big cats, but my first tiger sighting took my emotions to a higher level. In my dreams I hadn’t just wanted to see a tiger, I had wanted the whole experience. One of the most exciting things about a tiger sighting is the build up and anticipation supplied by other animals which warn of a tiger’s presence. My first tiger was preceded by the repeated high pitched bark of chital and langurs hurling abuse as they glimpsed stripes in the undergrowth. When a big male tiger finally strolled out onto a dry riverbed and surveyed the scene, all the champagne corks in the world went pop in my head.
Another nine tiger sightings followed on that 2017 trip, as we journeyed on to Ranthambhore and again revelled in another astounding wildlife paradise. I had read lots about Ranthambhore and I was aware of some of the history having read books by Valmik Thapar. I was taken aback to read that it was not so long ago that tigers and lions both lived side by side in Rajasthan. I grew up learning that lions come from Africa and tigers from India but of course that is not strictly true. At one point in time lions were the most globally widespread species of large mammal with a range stretching from Africa throughout much of southern Europe, much of Asia and even North America. The actions of man were largely responsible for wiping lions out of virtually all of their non-African range, but lions were once widespread in India and, of course, are still thriving in the Gir Forest in Gujerat. The thought of lions and tigers once living together in the forests of India is enough to blow the mind of a carnivore ecologist. How did they interact? Did they avoid each other by living in different habitats? How aggressive were they to each other? Did the social structure of lion prides not give them an advantage in any aggressive encounter with tigers? I don’t know if the answers to these questions are known by anyone, but they are absolutely fascinating to me.
The people of India deserve great credit for protecting their remaining tigers and for conserving those last few Asiatic lions. There are many conservation heroes in the story of the Gir Forest. Historically, the efforts of Rasul Khanji and Mahabat Khanji both undoubtedly saved Asiatic lions from extinction. The World owes them gratitude. In the current day, the heroes in my opinion are the Maldhari people who are an integral part of the Gir Forest and who have turned from lion persecutors to lion protectors. We in the West must recognise that its not always easy to live alongside big carnivores which are capable of killing livestock and people. The presence of big predators effects the way people live their lives and, to some extent, reduces human freedoms. Those of us who live in the UK where there are no large predators should be grateful to those who willing share their lives with potentially dangerous animals in other parts of the globe. The pride the people of Gujerat take in the conservation success of the Gir Forest lions is inspirational to all of us who love wildlife and the professionalism of the lion conservation programme demands respect. Given the success of conservation efforts and the growth of the lion population, there must now be a strong case for re-introducing Asiatic lions to other parts of their former Indian range. All ecologists know that spreading a population across a wider area increases the chances of a species’ survival in the long term. The risk of a catastrophic disease outbreak is reduced as is the threat of natural or man-made disasters. I have read something about previous discussions to re-introduce lions to other parts of India and I think it’s unfortunate that this has not happened. I can understand something of the reluctance in Gujerat to make this happen but I think concerns are mis-placed. The Gir Forest will always be associated with lions and will always be a focus for tourists and conservationists alike. A healthy sustainable lion population should always be a goal for the Gir Forest. But the lions deserve to spread again and to roar in other parts of India. They would be safer as a species if they did. Such a move would not diminish the efforts of the lion conservers of Gujerat but would increase the respect and admiration with which they are held. I very much hope I live to see lions being helped to spread to a wider range within India.
Note: The photo is of the author at his work in Scotland.