Crossing Corridors: In the Footsteps of a Tiger

We are walking along a dry stream bed, and my eyes are trained on the ground, on oval-shaped, river-run stones under our feet. On the sides of the stream are large trees, arms spread wide. A Zizyphus is about to fruit, and a semal emerges elegantly from thick grasses. We are in Kalesar National Park in Haryana, and the air is punctured with birdcalls. Haryana is infamous for having the lowest percentage of forests of all states. But now, Haryana has a tiger, and that tiger has found the state’s best forests. That tiger threaded his way through the same area we just walked in; his pugmarks may have pressed upon the stones I was touching. It was a prickling, exciting awareness. No matter how many times you see a tiger, it feels like the first time; no matter how cool you act, the awareness of a tiger nearby makes your senses sharper and your spine straighter.

In April 2023, the first stories emerged in the English press – “After 110 years, tiger in Kalesar”. In February 2023, a tiger had been spotted in Col. Sher Jung National Park in Himachal Pradesh. Col. Sher Jung and Kalesar are next to each other. So, could the tiger have been the same one? And to think of the forest that we were in, it was necessary to think outside the forest, too. The question then became: how did the tiger get here, and which non-forest areas did he use to reach this forest? 

Through camera trap data, the answers emerge as a fascinating tapestry. In 2023, a six-year-old male tiger set off from the eastern part of Rajaji Tiger Reserve and moved to Kalesar and Col. Sher Jung parks, covering almost 300 km over six months. Kalesar and Col. Sher Jung have fine sal forests and chaur grasslands. The tiger is now spending time between the two parks — using the entire area as a single landscape.

To reach Kalesar, the tiger must have negotiated a host of obstacles and some contradictions. The stately Gurudwara Paonta Sahib is located on the banks of the Yamuna. The scene should be peaceful, but it is not. Right outside the resplendent gurudwara, lines of machines claw out sand and boulders from the Yamuna riverbed. An industrial belt is nearby. So is the Yamuna River canal, with steep, raised banks that can be difficult for an animal to cross. For an animal negotiating water, land and road, this region along the Yamuna, near the tetra-junction of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, is absolutely critical. This 40-square-kilometre area is what we call the Yamuna River corridor. It holds the potential to create robust connectivity between Himachal and the Shiwaliks — and, in effect, the future of other Himalayan tigers.

To understand the lesser-known Shiwaliks and Kalesar and Col. Sher Jung parks, let us move from the famed Rajaji Tiger Reserve like a tiger would. Framed by mountains, cut by ridges and girded by tall trees that remind the onlooker of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Rajaji is an important habitat for the tiger, elephant, a range of prey species, and a plethora of birds. The Ganga River, broad and silvery, bifurcates the park into the eastern and western sides. Being in Rajaji feels like you’re sauntering through a desk calendar. Indian pittas, woodland specialists, call from the thick leaf litter. In the ridges, snakes bask. Black francolins zigzag through, and a young, sheepish, scaly-bellied eagle owl looks out from a dry tree. Elephants and leopards frequent the area, and tigers are increasingly seen.

But Rajaji lies in the shadow of Haridwar and Dehradun and has suffered because of this. Large roads and highways bisect the park. Rajaji might be the most astonishingly verdant part of the Terai, but it’s also the most dramatic in its contrasts with urban sprawl. A hard edge shoulders the park in places near Dehradun. In the evenings, the lights for a gymnasium and chai shop blink, and just behind that is the deep, velvety darkness of the tiger reserve. For over ten years, western Rajaji had only two tigers, while the more connected eastern Rajaji had a larger tiger population. 

It was the time for an intervention. Between 2020 and 2022, three tigers (a male and two females) were successfully relocated from Corbett Tiger Reserve to boost the population in western Rajaji. In a long-drawn-out process, attempts were made to link the Chilla and Motichur areas of the park by making an elevated road that allows wildlife movement.

Here comes the most important part of this story. The Kalesar tiger used the underpass between Chilla and Motichur to reach its present location. Firstly, this means that things may finally be looking up for the tigers of Rajaji, and the population is likely to grow. Secondly, it means that a single tiger used two different wildlife corridors in its exploration — the Chilla-Motichur corridor and the Yamuna River corridor.

There are many kinds of bottlenecks for the movement of wildlife. One is roads that don’t plan for wildlife movement. The other, less known obstacle appears fluid but is often a solid, permanent barrier: big canals and other similar water structures. WWF-India has been studying the area for a while, and some insights have emerged. The Yamuna canal is like a scythe in the land, a knife that cuts through; it is too difficult to cross. Several streams drain into the Yamuna canal, and not all can be easily crossed. However, the Binol rau aqueduct serves as a narrow, unassuming bridge on it and is the unlikely and only place where elephants have been seen crossing the canal. 

“It is necessary to implement a combination of land and water management strategies to enable animal crossing along the Yamuna corridor near the industrial belt,” says Devavrat Pawar from WWF-India. “The Binol Rau aqueduct is a crucial crossing area, particularly for elephants. Considering the presence of numerous homesteads along the Rau, the government should take proactive measures to protect this vulnerable bottleneck pass. We must create wider passages for animals, especially large mammals like elephants, to move freely across waterbodies like the Yamuna Khara canal. We must enhance and maintain natural vegetation along the Yamuna River, creating a continuous habitat for animals.” Additionally, Pawar points out that we need underpasses or overpasses to be constructed along NH907 in Haryana, with security posts to control traffic speed and prevent accidents and roadkill. The existing NH72A highway, between the Mohand range of Shivalik forest division, Asarodi Range of Dehradun forest division department, and Rajaji Tiger Reserve, is being expanded from four lanes to a proposed six-lane highway connecting Dehradun to Delhi. (The highway on the Uttar Pradesh side will consist of underpasses, but as of now, there is no clarity on whether there will be underpasses in Uttarakhand.)

The Chilla-Motichur corridor and underpass demonstrate what can happen if you plan for wild animals and not just for vehicles. With the Yamuna corridor, this approach must continue. Camera trap data allows us to think like a tiger. And to think like a tiger is to open a map up to a generous, more-than-human vision. Saving the places tigers and elephants use to cross is understanding how the landscape can serve more than just people. For the entire Shiwalik region, this is a chance we must not give up.

The animals are giving us clues on the areas which can make their passing easier. In making crossings easier, we can do right for the tiger in Kalesar. Even more significantly, we might be able to secure the populations of many more Himalayan tigers.

The corridor series, in association with WWF-India, will highlight different facets of wildlife corridors in India.