Lessons from Ustad's shift to zoo

JAIPUR: He walked with a swagger, and was the dominant male of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. On May 8 last year, Ustad or T-24 was held responsible for killing a forest guard. He had reportedly killed another guard in 2012. Over five years, he was held responsible for the deaths of two other men who had ventured into his territory. Following the incidents, the tiger was moved to the Udaipur zoo.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, without entertaining a petition questioning the translocation, said Ustad would stay put in the Udaipur Zoo, where he had been shifted from Ranthambore.

When Ustad was first moved nearly 400 km away from his natural habitat to the zoo last year, there was a major debate on social media. He featured in news reports not only domestically but also on BBC and Al Jazeera. People from the US and UAE sprang to his defence, saying he could hardly be responsible for the deaths in his own territory – it was not as if he was seeking out people to kill.



Sarita Subramaniam, a resident of Mumbai and a keen wildlife enthusiast who has been following the case very closely, was disappointed that the SC had not entertained the petition: “If a man were to walk on the tracks and be hit by a train, would we ban the railways? Why did the SC decide on the matter without even entertaining the petition?”

Bangalore-based conservationist Praveen Bhargav of NGO Wildlife First, however, warns that we must not make too much of one individual tiger. The focus should be conserving the species in its natural habitat, across varied landscapes.

“We must focus on prevention of human-wildlife conflict to the best extent possible. Tigers are prolific breeders and in some well protected reserves there is intense competition for space as cubs disperse when they are about two years old and try to establish their territory.”

Moving tigers from one territory to another is not advisable, he says. “Translocation of this species – as also with other territorial species like reptiles – is often messy. The translocated tiger might come into conflict with tigers already present there. Conservation efforts must therefore focus on protection of large landscapes and corridors.”

The key, he said, is good density of prey and proper insulation of tiger habitats. “With good prey base, the home range of a breeding female tiger would be as small as about 10- 12 km. In areas with low prey density, the home ranges could be 30 times more. Instead of getting distracted with one individual tiger, we need to ensure protection of its habitat for sufficient prey density. There should be viable corridors for spillover tiger populations to move across a large landscape. The most crucial task is to insulate identified tiger landscapes from the threat of ‘development’ projects.”