By Dr. Corinne Taylor-Smith | Project Leader
Whilst many of us are still gripped by Winter’s freezing temperatures and challenging weather conditions, it is sometimes hard to imagine that in India, where our brave anti-poaching patrollers work tirelessly to keep wild tigers safe, the daytime temperatures will soon soar to 40°C (104°F) whilst nighttime temperatures can still fall below 15°C (59°F) which can feel quite chilly given the vast differences between high and low. From a clothing point of view such variances can prove quite a challenge too as many patrol duties start in the day and continue into the night or vice versa.
Without your kind and generous donations over the last few months at least 200 brave men and women, tiger protectors, would have struggled to perform their daily tasks without the essential equipment needed. Thank you, your incredible support in these challenging times, is amazing. Your generosity continues to help us to equip these brave men and women to cope in all manner of weather conditions and with the challenges that the terrain, the miscreants and the wildlife throw at them. As regular readers of our project reports will know we have struggled to keep pace with the rate at which renewal and replacement of vital kit has been needed over the last four years, let alone attempt to equip the patrolling teams with better more reliable equipment.
To guarantee that Tigers4Ever can continue to be sustainable and ensure that those living alongside wild tigers have a reason to keep them safe we always support the local economy when purchasing clothing and equipment for the brave patrollers as this gives the locals a vested interest in wild tiger survival too.
Uniforms, Sturdy Boots and Warm Winter Jackets
Your amazing support helped us to provide full uniforms and sturdy boots for 100 brave patrollers in November, many of which would be suffering during the seasonal weather extremes due to inadequate footwear without your help. Your generosity also helped us to provide warm winter jackets for another 100 brave anti-poaching patrollers to help them to stay out on patrol on the coldest winter days and nights. Thank you, we couldn’t have achieved it without your amazing support.
Over the last two years you have helped us to ensure that 904 brave men and women anti-poaching patrollers have a warm winter jacket, AND to provide full uniforms and sturdy boots for 620 brave patrollers who didn’t have them at all. Thank you again on behalf of them all.
More Uniforms, Boots and Flashlights are needed Urgently
As you can imagine from the numbers above, some of the 1005+ brave patrollers are still without sturdy boots, uniforms, warm winter jackets and other essential equipment, this is before we can even consider replenishment and renewal for worn out clothing and equipment. We still aim to replenish and replace worn out essential equipment and provide the new equipment that modern day anti-poaching patrollers need, but we have some way to go before we can do this. We hope, with your help, we can ensure that every patroller has a full uniform, sturdy boots and a warm winter jacket before the end of 2025. If we can do this together t would be truly amazing.
It is a huge task, as some of the equipment which still needs replacing is over 13 years old. Your amazing support has already helped us to provide 1005 essential waterproof clothing sets; 904 warm winter jackets; full uniforms and sturdy boots for 620 patrollers, 250 powerful flashlights and the snake rescue kits which save both human and animal lives. You have helped us to ensure that the brave anti-poaching patrollers in Bandhavgarh are better equipped to face their daily challenges than they were two years ago. This gives us the hope we need to raise sufficient funds to provide the essentials still needed.
Wearing a uniform is very important for the brave anti-poaching patrollers who keep wild tigers safe, it is more than just protection from their work environment, it distinguishes them from forest intruders and interlopers. Sadly, we’ve been unable to provide sturdy boots and uniforms for 30 of the brave men and women patrollers who still don’t have proper clothing to wear as they keep wild tigers safe. If we hadn’t provided the 100 uniforms and pairs of sturdy boots in November 2024 the situation would be much worse. In challenging situations, wearing the uniform helps the patrollers to command the authority and respect they need and deserve. When the patrollers lack proper uniforms and kit it frequently leads to their requests being ignored or disrespected by those encroaching into the forest or conducting illicit or illegal activities. We want to prioritise full uniforms and boots for the remaining 30 brave individuals to ensure that they can conduct their patrolling efficiently and safely. We need to raise another £1500 ($1920) to ensure that every patroller has a full uniform and sturdy boots when they’re on duty. The right equipment is fundamental to ensuring that these brave patrollers who risk their lives to keep wild tigers safe are protected whenever they are on foot (https://goto.gg/56553).
As winter is drawing to a close and the hottest driest weather will be upon us for the next 4 months, we’re able to turn our attentions away from the remaining 101 warm winter jackets which will be urgently needed in the Autumn (Fall) and focus our urgent attention on the year-round equipment needs. We. will still need to raise £2020 (US$2690) to cover the cost of these jackets but hopefully we will be able to raise these funds during the summer monsoon season, if not before. (https://goto.gg/56553).
The monsoon season brings both darker days and nights due to heavy cloud cover, torrential rainfall and under the forest canopy where new foliage blocks out the little light which remains, this results in more patrolling in darkness or twilight, often coupled with treacherous conditions. With this in mind, we are prioritising more rechargeable powerful flashlights alongside the uniforms highlighted above. There are over 750 patrollers without a powerful rechargeable waterproof flashlight, and we would like to reduce this number by at least 100 in the next few months but it will cost £1660 ($2210) to do so. In the meantime, the brave patrollers continue to share one powerful flashlight between two, three or four patrollers who are on duty together, but even sharing like this means we still need a minimum of 205 more powerful flashlights (https://goto.gg/56553).
The equipment needs of our patrols are constantly changing as poachers and other miscreants deploy new techniques to avoid capture or discovery. Modern patrolling equipment needs to be lighter, more versatile and more durable than before. As a result, fundraising for new and replacement equipment is likely to be a long-term project going forward. At night, in pitch dark conditions, wooden canes, head torches and powerful flashlights are invaluable kit to provide reflections in the eyes of wild animals and of the metal from hidden snares and traps, and to provide a means of disarming those traps without losing a limb.
Patrolling is Always Dangerous
Our patrollers report back on the daily dangers they face, and after almost 10 years of patrolling, we regularly learn how the patrollers’ encounters with other humans are those which strike the greatest fear into them. Every patroller says the same thing, the most dangerous moment in the forest is when they encounter humans! Attacks on anti-poaching patrollers are sadly not uncommon. Our patrollers say that humans are far more dangerous than the wild animals they protect because humans are unpredictable. They carry guns or other weapons and launch unprovoked attacks. They can react badly to being caught in the forest, and when they outnumber the patrolling team, they will frequently try all means to get away, including attacking/beating up the patrollers who have discovered them. Sometimes, the humans save their retaliation for later and may attack an off-duty patroller when they are returning home after a long shift in the forest. To counter these risks, we always try to ensure that a patrolling vehicle is close by, in case back up or rapid transfer to a medical facility is needed. Thankfully, attacks by wild animals on our patrolling team are rare and we adopt a safety in numbers approach to foot patrolling to reduce the risk of human attacks whilst on duty.
Human-Wildlife Conflict is Increasing
In the last report, we told you how 10 wild elephants had died due to poisoning and that the 3 surviving elephants from the poisoned herd had attacked 5 humans, two of which had died whilst the others were in hospital for ongoing treatment for their injuries. Such moments are both heartbreaking and devastating but also a sharp reminder of the fine balance between conflict and tolerance for the human and wildlife populations. These deaths reduced the total wild elephant population in Bandhavgarh by almost 20% which is doubly devastating because many of the dead elephants were breeding age females so the impact will be felt for many years to come. In the last 6 years, wild elephants have contributed to large increases in human-wildlife conflict as they travel hundreds of miles each day consuming 1 -2 tonnes of food each as they go. Some farmers lose entire rice and wheat crops in a single night when the elephants bulldoze their way into their fields. Crop losses leave families distraught and hungry, and some farmers have taken their own lives from the resulting despair. Finding solutions which keep the elephants safe and the farmers happy is not easy. Tigers4Ever has installed solar street lighting at the key entry points from the forest into 55 villages and critical patrolling camp locations to help protect the people including children sleeping in their homes, the schools from destruction and the livestock from nocturnal predators too. We have improved tolerance and reduced human-wildlife conflict, especially from tigers and leopards, by installing these measures, however, it would be impossible to put solar powered PIR sensitive lighting encircling every village against potential elephant attacks so other methods are needed. Retaliatory poisoning is one of the most heartbreaking methods used in and around the villages to prevent wildlife intrusions and attacks as it has far-reaching and devastating consequences beyond the obvious. Something which has been painfully relived in recent months, in the last 9 and a half years our anti-poaching patrols have fought really hard to eliminate the retaliatory poisoning of wild tigers because its indiscriminate consequences kill multiple tigers, jackals, hyenas and other scavengers, vultures, other birds and insects which feed on the poisoned carcass and the carcasses of those which ate the poison too! It remains to be seen how many more animals will die from infected food and soils following the poisoning of 10 elephants as the impact of their buried carcasses could be felt for years! Our anti-poaching patrols will desperately need everything we can equip them with to fight this silent but most deadly killer!
What else are we doing to help?
Our anti-poaching patrols are tripled and on high alert for signs of poisons around the edges of villages and near waterholes especially. Our patrolling range has also increased twice in recent months to give greater protection to dispersing sub-adult tigers. Our work at four new permanent wildlife waterholes is has been completed. As has the work to increase the size of another seasonal waterhole in the Pachpedi core forest and install a new pump system to ensure year-round water going forward. We completely work on another waterhole in the Magdhi core forest on Christmas Day 2024, only to discover whilst filling the waterhole that the existing borewell site was unstable and a new one was needed. Work on the new borewell was completely in January and the waterhole is now providing year-round water for more than 8 tigers and their cubs. Our work to create a new large wildlife waterhole in the Pachpedi-Birulhi buffer which will provide year-round water at a new location for wild tigers and their prey, was delated following the elephant poisonings and the snaring of the alpha male wild tiger Chota Bheem, however, this is now bac on track and we hope to complete the works soon. On completion, we hope to start work on another permanent wildlife waterhole in the Kithauli core zone.
We urgently need your help to provide another 30 full uniforms and boots so patrolling can continue for every patroller at the optimum level. To equip every patroller with a uniform and boots, we need to raise another £1500 ($1920) so that the brave men and women who risk their lives each day to keep wild tigers safe can keep going in the challenging conditions ahead. We also desperately need more powerful waterproof flashlights for the brave patrollers which if we get the minimum of 205 will cost £3405 ($4565) so we are hoping that our Little By Little bonus matched funding campaign from 25-28 March 2025 will help. Nonetheless any help you can give will always be most welcome: https://goto.gg/56553. Even the smallest donation will be a huge help in these difficult times.
Making a Difference
Your continued support helps us to patrol an extra 1000 km (624 miles) of wild tiger territory per month, without essential equipment this may reduce as winter takes hold! It is vital to ensure sufficient time to search for snares; traps and signs of poisoners around forest areas where human encroachment is widespread; and around the periphery of villages where crop raiding and livestock killing is rife. Increased patrolling helps us to curb human encroachment into wild tigers’ territories and allows us to provide safety advice for those trying to protect their crops and livestock from wandering elephants and tigers respectively.
With over 225 tigers to keep safe now, we need your help to ensure we can keep going. Your gift today, however large or small can make a huge difference as to whether Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers can survive the unprecedented threats they currently face:
Without our help, we know that more wild tigers will die; and more humans will be mauled or killed due to encroachment or human-tiger conflict. Sadly, with every human life lost comes another threat to the wild tiger’s survival in the form of retaliation; thus, we must protect both if we are to ensure that wild tigers can have a wild future.
Please don’t hesitate if you can help, your donation can be the difference between life and death for a wild tiger, as it helps to keep our patrolling going when it is most needed. Every tiger and every tiger cub counts. Thank you for making our fight against poachers, the changing climate and human-animal conflict possible. (https://goto.gg/56553).
May I take this opportunity to thank you again for your amazing support.
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