Whistling Woods: The tale of two National Parks

Bandhavgarh and Kanha – siblings, twin sisters, National Parks, tiger dens; there are a lot of buckets where we might club the two jungles which lie in the heart of Central India. Madhya Pradesh, which fittingly, translates into the Central State, is home to ostensibly two of the most celebrated jungles of the country. The last of the Royal Bengal Tigers have made these jungles their home and they live in a space which has seen poachers and hunters off limits for a good while now. Bandhavgarh and Kanha are truly success stories in their own light; stories which have been an inspiration for many a wildlife conservation folks and enthusiasts which see them coming to these parks to understand how the local governments here took it on them to double the number of Royal Tigers in a decade. Tiger tours India has risen exponentially and there are a host of factors why Kanha and Bandhavgarh are leading the charge.

The first and foremost step in this direction was opening the gates of these parks for tourist safaris and sightseeing. The constant influx of tourists in these national parks has always been a deterrent for poachers because of the roving jeeps making their horrendous task impossible. The fact that both these National Parks have a huge buffer area (area which is inaccessible to tourists) has been a problem area but authorities have been slowly carving out tracts within these buffer areas so as to let tourists wander without encroaching on jungle habitat. A safari India became one of the most sought after things to do on their itinerary.

The second step has been increasing the perks and remuneration of forest officials employed in these jungles. Not too long ago, the biggest reason for the reckless poaching of tigers and their cubs was the fact that poachers bribed these poorly paid and demotivated employees who used to let them sneak in through nooks and crannies of these websites and hunt for tigers. The local government understood that the poor pay scale and lack of job rotation was taking a toll on their employees and instead of a short term snap, they looked at the bigger picture and got them involved in a series of mutual discussions on how to improve work conditions in the parks. The resulting conversations saw a slew of changes in the pay scale and regular job rotation (no official is working on a profile for more than 3 months. For example, a forest guard takes on the mantle of a tour guide and vice-versa) which led to a proactive approach to work and a more involved workforce which understood that protecting the tiger was their prime duty.