D.S. Rawat’s story says it all. Rawat, the Park Warden of Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand, has a recent anecdote, which surprisingly isn’t a spine-tingling tiger account. Instead, it’s a tale that brings together local intelligence and regulated enforcement. A part of the park’s success story, which includes changed patrolling regimes, employment of villagers and ecotourism. One that has helped the numbers of the tigers at India’s oldest tiger sanctuary go up from 137 in 2001-2 to 164 in 2007, even as the number of wild tigers in India has dwindled from 3,642 to 1,411.

“We found a yellow patch on the ground while patrolling,” Rawat says, his weatherbeaten face breaking into a grin. “The forest guards first thought that it was the vomit of a suspicious person (a suspicious person, in forest jargon, is a poacher). We further predicted that this person had consumed alcohol, and it was arhar dal in the vomit. We were ready to put out a distress call on the wireless to hunt for the intruder. But a forest watcher, a local youth, said it wasn’t arhar dal, but honey that a bear had vomited out. On his hunch, we tested some white traces in the substance. It turned out to be beewax. And the watcher turned out to be right.”

The moral of the story, Rawat stresses, is harnessing the strength and knowledge of the villager, part of a local community, which has always lived next to India’s oldest tiger reserve. Villagers form a living, integral part of the success story in Corbett.

... contd.