Striped Sisters Lead Conservation in Sariska

A heartwarming picture of a small tiger cub playing with its mother at Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) published recently has caught the attention of wildlife lovers across the globe. The relentless beauty of this picture symbolises the grit of the tiger recovery program in STR. The flagbearers of this programme are two tiger sisters who, in an unusual case, were reared by their father. The sisters were relocated from Ranthambore to Sariska where they continue to take forward the tiger population conservation efforts.

In Kachida Valley inside Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR), situated in western part of India, a female tigress, known as T-5, gave birth to two female cubs in December 2010. The entire reserve rejoiced the birth of two female tiger cubs, hoping for their promising future and that of the conservation programme. However, the resounding joy soon turned into sorrow, when in February 2011, the mother succumbed to digestive system related ailments. The fate of the two newborn sisters was now undecided.

In big cats, initial parental care provided by the mother is the most critical part of their life, and in the wild, less than half of the cubs make it to adulthood. Generally, the cubs remain with their mothers and learn hunting and survival skills before they separate to establish their own territories at the age of about two years. With the death of the mother, the forest department officials feared the worst as it is usually nearly impossible for tiger cubs to survive without their mother around, especially, when bereaved of the maternal support in early age. But as it would soon turn out, these sisters were destined for something big and different. In an extremely rare and unusual turn of events, the father, a young male named T-25, took the responsibility of nurturing the young ones. It is the first reported case of its kind here, where a male tiger raised the young cubs.

The extremely rare male tiger behavior was corroborated by anecdotal observations of the forest officials. The forest department at RTR engaged in proactive monitoring of cubs while occasionally feeding them. Rajbir, a forester at RTR for the past 25 years, recalled that on many occasions he witnessed that after making a kill, the male tiger, the father, use to make growling sounds to call the cubs and share the kill with them. Again, this is unexpected behaviour and a rare response in the case of solitary male tigers. Moreover, the father would actively accompany the cubs to ensure protection and defended their territory from other intruding tigers who were also an imminent threat to their survival. Often, the father was observed training the cubs for necessary skills for survival and reprimanding them – something that the mother usually does.

As these cubs grew older, they started to occupy the familiar areas in and around Kachida which were once ruled by their mother. The sisters then moved up to the Amaghati area, which is more exposed to anthropogenic disturbance and they would often stray out into the nearby resorts.

Attempts to repopulate Sariska with tigers from Ranthambore

Another tiger reserve in Rajasthan, the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) is situated in the semi-arid landscape of western India and represents the western-most distribution limit of tigers in the country. It is a human-dominated landscape having a total area of 1213.31 square km with 26 villages situated in Critical Tiger Habitat. Tragically, STR, lost all its tigers in year 2004-05, primarily due to poaching. Amid hue and cry from conservation communities across the globe, the government, with strong intent to conserve its natural resources refined the legislation and conservation policy. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a national body responsible for the protection of tigers in India, also came into existence during this refinement. The continued efforts to re-establish the lost glory of Sariska resulted in the world’s first tiger reintroduction plan in 2008. The Rajasthan Forest Department and Wildlife Institute of India were the main executing agencies acting under the guidance of NTCA.

As part of this plan, tigers were reintroduced in Sariska from Ranthambore. A year later, in 2009, Panna, another tiger reserve in central India, followed the same trend. In Panna, reintroduction turned out to be a success, and soon the reserve became home to a flourishing population of big cats.

However, the reintroduction programme at Sariska tiger reserve was not initially successful. The first reintroduced male tiger died due to poisoning from feeding on a poisoned cattle carcass and relocated tigresses were not breeding in STR. Due to these issues, many theories surfaced questioning the viability of the programme citing various reasons, including, selection of wrong individuals and the presence of radio collars around the neck hindering the breeding success, among others. A study by Bhattacharjee et al. in 2015 indicated that stress resulting from anthropogenic factors was the primary reason for breeding failure in STR.

Tigers breed prolifically, and that too across the reserves in the country. In Sariska, the people working there, have an emotional attachment to newborn tiger cubs. The small population and intensive monitoring of tigers enable their individual identification and hence staff tends to them with much care and affection.

After a long wait of four years from the date of tiger reintroduction in Sariska, a female tigress named ST-2, littered and was seen with two cubs in July 2012. But this was only a small step in the long journey. Two other translocated females ST-3 and ST-5 did not litter, leaving the program’s success hanging by a thin thread of uncertainty.

A new journey for the Ranthambore sisters

To bring fresh life in the recovery plan, the orphaned female tigers (once known as Bina-I and Bina-II), who were raised by their father, were brought from Ranthambore to Sariska in January 2013 and named ST-9 and ST-10. Eyebrows were raised and speculations were made about the decision to translocate the tigers that were not well versed with survival skills in the jungle. With their history of venturing into resorts and habitations adjacent to the periphery of the park, it was believed that the two sisters will be in the middle of a conflict in the human-dominated landscape of STR soon. This would then jeopardise the tiger recovery programme.

But against all odds, the relocated sisters have acclimatised very well in their new habitat and contributed significantly in building up the tiger population in reserve. Rajesh and Ratan, the tiger trackers who are involved in the tiger monitoring programme since 2009, recall as soon as the gate of enclosures in which both the sisters were kept, was opened, both went in different directions. In initial days they explored a large area in search of territories but gradually settled down and demarcated their territories. Tigress ST-9 occupied areas of Sariska and Talvriksh ranges, whereas, ST-10 tigress occupied the areas of Talvriksh and Akbarpur ranges which they are using to date. Contrary to speculations made about their survival, both the tigresses actively started hunting on their own. There were reports of kills made by the tigresses mostly on wild animals and few on cattle, added Ratan.

The territory of ST-10 is in a heavily human-dominated landscape and regularly the tigress has been seen venturing into habitations and agricultural fields. She has also killed livestock, and on several occasions, was spotted sitting on the main road of the village, blocking the movement of villagers for hours. Despite the close interaction in the human habitation, no serious conflict issue came up due to intensive monitoring and prompt response by the forest department. Jagram, who is monitoring the tigress for the last five years, reported that the tigress is perceived to be ‘gentle’ by the villagers who have turned respectful towards her owing to her behaviour.

After overcoming the initial hitch, hardly one and a half years from its translocation in the park, to the surprise and joy of the conservation community, ST-10 was seen with two cubs, ST-11 (male) and ST-12 (female). They were spotted in August 2014 and would have been three months old by the time.

Once an orphaned cub reared by father and translocated to an unfamiliar territory, ST-10 was now facing a new challenge to rear the young ones and more importantly teaching the cubs survival skills. But she was up for the challenge and performed her motherly duties with utmost sincerity and devotion towards her cubs. Her rearing is evident from the fact that both the tigers got separated from their mother in March-April 2016. To continue the legacy of his mother, the male ST-11 mated with a female ST-14 who gave given birth to ST-17 (female) and ST-18 (male).

Unfortunately, ST-11 died due to strangulation from wire snare in 2018.  Death of a young male was a huge setback and another female (ST-5) went missing from the reserve. This time it was ST-12, daughter of ST-10, who gave birth to three cubs ST-19 (female) and ST-20, ST-21 (both males). This was the first time on record when any tigress has given birth to three cubs at once in STR. The record was again matched, when, in just three months after her daughter, ST-10 littered for the second time in December 2018 and gave birth to three cubs. This time, the happiness was short-lived as cubs went missing, probably due to infanticide by a male tiger two months later. Yet again, she came back strong from this setback and recently had given birth to one more cub which was seen in March 2020 in camera trap.

Although the other reintroduced orphan tigress ST-9 could not match the prolific breeding rate of her sister, she had given birth to one male tiger ST-15, seen in February 2016. The male has now settled in new territory which encompasses territories of three females and is definitely a new hope in a park that has a low number of males. ST-9 meanwhile has occupied the area which is near the main tourist area and she is one of the popular tigresses among the tourists as she is frequently sighted and easily recognised by her broken tail, which got cut probably during a hunting expedition. Less interaction with a suitable male is one of the reasons for her low breeding rate. But still, at a young age, she is destined to contribute a lot for the tiger reserve.

Initial stocking and supplementation of the population were between 2008 to 2013 where 8 individuals (5 females and 3 males) were brought to Sariska. One more individual was brought in the year 2019. In the last twelve years, sixteen cubs were born in Sariska; out of those, twelve are still surviving. Thus, the recruitment rate is one individual per year. Seven individuals have died or missing so the mortality rate is 0.58, and the recruitment rate is higher than the mortality. Population Viability Analysis (PVA) done by scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India predicts this can sustain tiger survival in the long run by the creation of more inviolate spaces and active monitoring.

Not only did the females master the survival skills in the wild, but also efficiently discharged their duties as successful mothers. As the third generation of ST-10 is on the verge of adulthood and already started demarcating their territories, the future seems bright for the reserve. It seems, in the form of newborns, with its vibrant colors, nature is painting for us, a beautiful future.

Views are personal.

This story was first published in Mongabay India.