Tigers4Ever

Thank you for your incredible support for our Anti-poaching Patrols throughout the first 6 months of 2022. Your generosity has helped us to continue with increased patrolling as the new standard for 2022. Without your help this would be impossible. We can now ensure that the growing population of wild tigers and cubs is getting the best protection we can currently provide.

Triple patrolling the new standard outside the monsoon period and quadruple patrolling the new standard during the three months of the monsoon season, for 2022-23. From 01 May 2022, we increased the wages our patrollers receive by 14% to help them cope with rising costs post pandemic. Our transport costs associated with getting the patrollers to the remotest parts of the forest have also increased due to rising fuel prices. We’re trying our best to keep our costs down, where possible, but some increases are beyond our control. The new costs are now reflected in our main anti-poaching patrols project https://tigers4ever.org/patrols/.

The drought season is at its peak in Bandhavgarh. Temperatures are scaling new heights with each passing day leading to an increased risk of spontaneous fires and those caused by human carelessness. Our patrols are always alert at this time of year to fire risks, seeking to identify them early and extinguish them before they get out of control. Sadly, it isn’t always possible; you may have seen recently on our Twitter feed that a fire decimated 50 hectares (500,000 square metres) of tiger forest just over a week ago. Despite valiant efforts, the fire raged for 4 days and 3 nights before it was under control. One year on from the devastating fires at Easter 2021, there are still areas of forest scorched by the fires, devoid of life, needing a breath of new life from seeds dispersed by insects, birds and other animals. It could take years for the recovery to start, which makes it even more important to protect the remaining forest from new fires. Wildlife waterholes are vital to fighting forest fires where fire vehicles cannot access jungle trails. https://tigers4ever.org/waterholes/.

What we are Doing to Help

We are working hard to install at least two more permanent wildlife waterholes to restore water in forest areas already parched dry by drought before the end of June. If we can complete these in the next few weeks it will bring the total number of Tigers4Ever waterholes to 13. We had hoped to complete our twelfth waterhole already but we experienced damage to the borewell drill at two preferred waterhole sites and have had to survey other alternatives. You can read more about this in our waterholes project report here: https://tigers4ever.org/a-busy-few-months/.

Our patrols are also kept busy with aiding the early identification of forest fires to ensure these are controlled/quenched as quickly as possible. Our brave patrollers have years of experience in quenching forest fires and limiting their spread, but every fire where they spend hours fighting flames takes them away from essential patrolling duties. It is essential, therefore, to keep our anti-poaching patrols tripled to ensure wild tigers and their cubs are safe. We were fortunate enough to receive grant funding from the Marjorie Coote Animal Charity Trust which enabled us to undertake tripled patrolling in March. We grateful to receive further Grant funding from the Jean Sainsbury Animal welfare trust, which will enable us to undertake quadruple patrolling during the monsoon which given the increased risk of poaching is absolutely essential.

It is quite difficult for our patrollers right now, with daily temperatures in Madhya Pradesh already reaching 48°C (118°F), which is higher than normal for this time of year. With these temperatures set to persist for a few more weeks coupled with 94% less pre-monsoon rains across the state, our patrols will need to exercise caution to avoid heatstroke especially whilst trying to prevent the spread of forest fires. All our patrollers are equipped with refillable water bottles which are essential kit right now. Our patrols call at forest department patrol camps, where Tigers4Ever has provided safe drinking water tanks, to refill their water bottles whilst in the field.

Tendu and Mahua Collection

The tendu leaf (Indian tobacco) and mahua flower (used to make Indian alcohol) picking season is well underway. Often the Mahua pickers start fires to create demarcation zones, which if left unattended can cause widespread forest fires. Villagers enter the forest in droves in the early morning to collect the tendu leaves and mahua flowers, which is a very dangerous time of day as tigers are more active at dawn and dusk as they hunt whilst the temperatures are lower. Over the last few years, many more villagers have turned to collecting leaves or flowers as a source of income because the pandemic robbed them of their livelihoods. This means more people in the forest and thus a greater risk of human-animal conflict, but it also means that poachers can seize the opportunity to enter the forest under the guise of being tendu or mahua collectors.

It’s not just the collection of produce to sell which drives villagers into the forest in the drought season; it is the need to feed themselves and their livestock too. As the summer months progress and the land becomes parched, herders take their livestock into the forest to graze, something which can cost the lives of both the farmers and their animals. Just over a month ago we received news that a villager had been killed by a tiger as he grazed his cattle in the core forest. The farmer had placed himself and his cattle between a tigress and her young cubs. The tigress did what was natural and attacked the man, striking him to the ground with a single blow from her extended claws. His survival chances were slim and he died from the wounds her claws inflicted.

There are no winners in such situations, the family is left without its main income earner and the angry villagers often call for action against the tigress to prevent future attacks. Education is key to both avoiding future tiger attacks and retaliation against the tiger. Despite the best efforts of our patrollers to give safety advice and the Tigers4Ever safety notices at key entry points in the forest, some villagers choose to ignore the advice and can lose their life.

Patrols on High Alert

Our anti-poaching patrollers are recruited from villages around Bandhavgarh so they know the locals and regular collectors well, having encountered them over the last 7 years. This helps to reduce the risk of strangers (poachers) entering the forest unnoticed and keeps our patrols are on high alert when they encounter an unfamiliar face. This is something which has become increasingly important since the pandemic when so many daily waged Indians lost their jobs in towns and cities before returning to rural communities to eke out a living.

Our patrols have needed to be on high alert throughout the last three years as wild tiger poaching increased across India. Just last week, our patrols received a stark reminder of the dangers they face when three policemen were shot dead by a gang of blackbuck poachers in the nearby district of Guna. The economic impact of the pandemic is still being felt in India and beyond, which continues to increase the likelihood of the poorest most desperate families turning to poaching for an income.

We know that many of the poachers who lay the snares and traps are just poor people desperate to feed their families, they’re not the ring leaders who facilitate the trade in wild tiger body parts nor do they make huge sums from their heinous acts. That’s why our increased patrolling, which enables us to protect an extra 1000 km (624 miles) per month of wild tiger territory, is vital. Without your support, this would be impossible, so thank you on behalf of the wild tigers we’re keeping safe.

Making a Difference

Thanks to your continued support, we can cover an extra 1000 km (624 miles) of wild tiger territory per month with our increased patrols. This is vital whilst forest fires continue to ensure sufficient time to search for snares; traps and signs of poisoners around forest areas where human encroachment is rife; and around the periphery of villages where crop raiding and livestock killing is rife. Increased patrolling helps us to curb human encroachment into wild tigers’ territories, and allows us to provide safety advice for those trying to protect their crops and livestock from wandering elephants and tigers respectively.

With more than 50 tiger cubs born since the start of the pandemic, we have many more wild tigers to keep safe now. So we still need your help. Your gift today, however large or small can make a huge difference as to whether Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers can survive these unprecedented threats:

A gift of £25 ($35) will help us to pay a patrolling team for a day

A gift of £30 ($42) will provide hot nutritious meals for a patrolling team for a day whilst they’re on duty

A gift of £45 ($63) will ensure that we can transport a team of anti-poaching patrollers to a remote location for a day’s patrolling

A gift of £100 ($142) will ensure that a team of patrollers can cover 125 km (78 miles) of wild tiger territory in a day

A monthly gift of £12 (US$17) per month will help us to pay an anti-poaching patroller for 35 days per year.

Without our help, we know that more wild tigers will die; and more humans will be mauled or killed due to encroachment or human-tiger conflict. Sadly, with every human life lost comes another threat to the wild tiger’s survival in the form of retaliation; thus we must protect both if we are to ensure that wild tigers can have a wild future.

Please don’t hesitate if you can help, your donation can be the difference between life and death for a wild tiger, as it helps to increase our patrolling when it is most needed. Every tiger and every tiger cub counts. Thank you for making our fight against poachers, the changing climate and human-animal conflict possible.

Thank you for your kind donations which meant that we were able to give new beginnings to 450 children living with wild tigers. This was 50% more than we had anticipated in our previous project report which is amazing. The new COVID protocols are still in place for many of the schools in India and this is still impacting our attempts to resume the pop-up nature schools in rural villages with children without access to state schools, but we are still trying. Your generosity has enabled us to help 450 children with education packs containing essential writing materials so they can finally access learning.

Distribution Continues

With so many children disadvantaged by the COVID pandemic coupled with the impact of human-animal conflict on their parents’ livelihoods, it is a near impossible task to choose which 450 children to help first. We’ve also had resourcing issues ourselves, as our patrols have been operating at triple standard patrolling for over a year and work continues to provide year-round water to as many tigers as possible as the drought season takes hold. Thus we have asked our patrollers to take education packs on the patrolling vehicle and distribute these to the neediest children in villages which have suffered the greatest losses due to human wildlife conflict. As a result, these education packs can reach children in some of the remotest villages, thereby having a positive impact for wild tigers in those communities.

We haven’t forgotten the children in the villages living closest to the wild tigers; in fact we’ve recently distributed education packs in the villages or Badrehal and Pathari in the Dhamokhar Buffer forest. For many villages around Bandhavgarh, human-wildlife conflict has been increasing year on year following the arrival of the wild elephants which are now claiming Bandhavgarh as home. These elephants have destroyed forest watch camps, a school, many crops and have killed many villagers as they tried to protect their livelihood. This when coupled with crop raiding monkeys, deer and wild boar plus livestock rustling predators, puts many villagers on the brink of extreme poverty. This poverty then equates to a lack of educational opportunities for the affected families’ children.

Helping the Children in Schools

In recent weeks, we have spoken to teachers at a number of schools in the villages around Bandhavgarh about distributing education packs in conjunction with the schools; however, most have been reluctant because we haven’t had sufficient education packs to ensure every child at the school will receive one. In order to do this we will need to raise funds for many more education packs, even if we select the schools in the smallest villages. If you’re able to help us overcome this obstacle, please donate now at: https://tigers4ever.org/donate/ even the smallest donation can have a big impact in the lives of these children.

For some children, our help has arrived too late, they have already reached 14 years old and thus no longer qualify for free state driven education. For those whose parents can’t afford to pay school fees there will be no opportunity to complete their education. As we reported in January, this is a concern for charities all across India, as this “lost generation” of young adults as the impact on their lives, their families and the forests will be felt for many years to come.

Although we can’t help the “lost generation” right now, we can help to prevent further youngsters falling into the same trap by ensuring that the education packs we distribute will benefit children in these three key age groups:

Early learners – Aged 4 – 7 years

Junior learners – Aged 8 – 11 years

Older learners – Aged 11 – 14 years

For every £1400 (US$2000) we raise, we will aim to send 450 children living with wild tigers to school. We will try to distribute this evenly across the three age groups with one third of the packs for each. We will continue to distribute all education packs in the hardest hit villages, and will try to raise further funds so that we can also help the pop-up schools when these resume.

Making a Difference

Around 450 children who didn’t have access to remote learning due to poverty, no electricity and lack of technology throughout the schools’ lockdown now have the opportunity to start or resume their education, thanks to your generosity. In this newsletter, we have shared some of the images of the smiling children’s faces who you have helped.

If you are able to help us help more children to have an education and become tiger protectors rather than foragers, please consider a new monthly donation as it’s never too late to make a difference: https://tigers4ever.org/donate/.

In the meantime, we will work hard with our Indian based education partner, GTCS, to try to restart the pop-up schools in the most remote villages as soon as the latest restrictions and funding allow. Thankfully, due to your amazing support and donations we have been able to provide education packs to support the learning of 450 children with education packs, this time. Sadly, there are thousands more children who desperately need your help!

Long Term Impact - Help is Still Needed

Our experience has shown us over the last 11.5 years, that without education, the prospects for the poorest children will be limited to picking tendu leaves, mahua flowers, amla fruit, from the forest to sell. Others will chop down trees and clear precious forest habitat to create more land for agriculture. Children from the poorest families still have no access to online learning facilities, as they live simple lives without electricity or access to technology.

Throughout the pandemic, your support for our work has been amazing. We definitely couldn’t have kept wild tigers safe without it. As India’s people try to rebuild their pre-pandemic lives, we hope that we can help to provide a brighter future for some of Bandhavgarh’s poorest children. If you can help to support the education of Bandhavgarh’s poorest rural children by starting a new monthly recurring donation from just £5 (US$8) per month, you will make a huge difference for at least 15 children in a year.

In Bandhavgarh, many people have faced the biggest challenges of their lives since the onset of the pandemic. For the thousands of young children with no access to schooling, without computers or mobile phones, without electricity in their homes, a bleak future awaits. These are the children who Tigers4Ever has always tried to help with books and basic writing materials which give them hope. With your help we give them a chance to go to school which otherwise they may not have.

You Can Make a Difference Today

We want to ensure that the poorest children get a chance to complete their education. We want to do more but we need your help to provide education packs so children can go to school right now. Your donation of £25 (US$40) can make that happen for at least 5 children right now.

Remember: when we provide education packs and scholarships for children living with wild tigers we are reducing the risk of future tiger habitat destruction AND ensuring that these children have the opportunity to become future tiger protectors.

I would like to thank you for your generosity and support on behalf of the wild tigers, which we are keeping safe; on behalf of the children who we have helped to get an education (and their families who have food because of this help); and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing books and writing equipment for inclusion in the education packs which we distribute. Stay Safe.

We were absolutely blown away by your incredible support for our Anti-poaching Patrols throughout 2021. Your generosity has helped us to make increased patrolling the new standard for 2022, which we think is fitting as 2022 is the Year of the Tiger! Thank you so much for making this possible and ensuring that the growing population of wild tigers and cubs is getting the best protection we can currently provide.

For 2022-23 we have made triple patrolling the new standard outside the monsoon period, and with your help we hope to make quadruple patrolling the new standard during the three months of the monsoon season. As with everywhere else right now, some of our core costs have escalated as fuel prices and living costs have increased. Due to this, there will be a few small changes to our project breakdown costs as we are increasing wages for our patrollers by 14% and need to cover the increased transport costs associated with getting the patrollers to the remotest parts of the forest. We’re doing everything we can to keep our costs down, where possible, but some increases are beyond our control.

Each day the temperatures are rising in Bandhavgarh as the drought season takes hold, with it comes an increased risk of spontaneous fires or those caused by human carelessness. Our patrols are always alert at this time of year to the risk of fires, seeking to identify them early and extinguish them before they get out of control. You may remember that in 2021 devastating fires raged through Bandhavgarh at Easter time killing thousands of animals, birds and trees vital to forest ecology. One year on, there are still areas of forest scorched by the fires, devoid of life, needing a breath of new life from seeds dispersed by insects, birds and other animals. It could take years for the recovery to start, which makes it even more important to protect the remaining forest from new fires.

What we are Doing to Help

Over the last four months we have completed work at three new permanent waterholes for wildlife projects which have restored water in areas of the forest already parched dry by drought. In the last week we’ve also started drilling at a fourth new waterhole site, in an area where human-wildlife conflict and poaching activities have always been a threat to the survival of wild tigers and their cubs. You can read our latest project report on our waterholes here: https://tigers4ever.org/a-busy-few-months/

As outlined above, our patrols are helping with the early identification of forest fires to ensure these are addressed and quenched as quickly as possible. Our brave patrollers are well trained in the skills necessary for quenching forest fires and limiting there spread, but every fire where they spend hours fighting takes them away from essential patrolling duties. This is why keeping our anti-poaching patrols tripled is vital for keeping wild tigers and their cubs safe. We were fortunate enough to receive grant funding from the Marjorie Coote Animal Welfare Foundation which enabled us to undertake tripled patrolling this month. This has enabled us to plan forward for our patrolling right up to the monsoon season at triple levels which given the increased risk of forest fires during the drought season is absolutely essential.

It is quite difficult for our patrollers right now, with daily temperatures in Madhya Pradesh already reaching 43.4°C (110°F) some 6°C (11°F) higher than normal for this time of year. With these temperatures set to persist and a 94% reduction in pre-monsoon rains across the state, our patrols will need to exercise caution to avoid heatstroke in addition to the need to prevent the spread of forest fires. All our patrollers are equipped with refillable water bottles which are essential kit right now. Our patrols call at forest department patrol camps, where Tigers4Ever has provided safe drinking water tanks, to refill their water bottles whilst in the field.

The Collection of Forest Produce

With the hot summer months comes the tendu leaf and mahua flower picking season, these are used to make Indian tobacco and Indian alcohol respectively. Villagers enter the forest in droves in the early morning to collect the tendu leaves and mahua flowers, but this is a very dangerous time of day as tigers are more active at dawn and dusk as they hunt whilst the temperatures are lower. Over the last few years, many more villagers have turned to collecting leaves or flowers as a source of income because the pandemic robbed them of their livelihoods. This means more people in the forest and thus a greater risk of human-animal conflict, but it also means that poachers can seize the opportunity to enter the forest under the guise of being tendu or mahua collectors.

It’s not just the collection of produce to sell which drives the villagers into the forest in the drought season; it is the need to feed themselves and their livestock too. As the summer months progress and the land becomes parched, herders take their livestock into the forest to graze, something which can cost the lives of both the farmers and their animals. Just 10 days ago we received news that a villager had been killed by a tiger as he grazed his cattle in the core forest. The farmer had placed himself and his cattle between a tigress and her young cubs. The tigress did what was natural and attacked the man, striking him to the ground with a single blow from her extended claws. His survival chances were slim and he died from the wounds inflicted by her claws.

There are no winners in these situations, the family is left without its main income earner and the angry villagers often call for action against the tigress to prevent future attacks. Education is key to both avoiding future tiger attacks and retaliation against the tiger. Despite the best efforts of our patrollers to give safety advice and the Tigers4Ever safety notices at key entry points in the forest, some villagers choose to ignore the advice and can lose their life.

Local Knowledge Helps

One of the major benefits of recruiting our anti-poaching patrollers from the villages around Bandhavgarh is that they know the locals and have familiarised themselves with the regular collectors over the last 7 years since our patrols began. This reduces the risk of strangers (poachers) entering the forest unnoticed and ensures that our patrols are on high alert when they encounter an unfamiliar face. This is something which has become increasingly important since the pandemic when so many daily waged Indians lost their jobs in towns and cities before returning to rural communities to eke out a living.

Our patrols have been on high alert almost constantly for the last three years as wild tiger poaching has continually increased across the whole of India. Madhya Pradesh, being the Tiger State (with the highest number of wild tigers in India) and Bandhavgarh in particular can be targeted at any time as poachers seek to capitalise on the increase in wild tiger numbers. The economic impact of the pandemic is still being felt in Bandhavgarh, as with many other parts of India and beyond, which will always increase the likelihood of the poorest most desperate families turning to poaching for an income.

We know that many of the poachers who lay the snares and traps are just poor people desperate to feed their families, they’re not the ring leaders who facilitate the trade in wild tiger body parts nor do they make huge sums from their heinous acts. That’s why our new triple patrolling standard, which enables us to protect an extra 1000 km (624 miles) per month of wild tiger territory, is vital. Without your support, this would be impossible, so thank you on behalf of the wild tigers we’re keeping safe.

Tiger Census

Since our last report, even more tiger cubs have been born so we know that the wild tiger population in Bandhavgarh is still increasing. We eagerly await the results of the latest tiger census which are due later this year; however, our focus right now is on keeping all these additional tigers safe.

This is the Year of the Tiger, in the Chinese zodiac, and there is a lot of momentum gathering as we approach the date set by all 13 tiger countries to double the number of wild tigers at both country and at a global level since 2010. It is anticipated that India will still be home to more than two thirds of the global wild tiger population, which in turn will doubtless increase the poaching demand. One thing is for sure, we cannot assume that our successes to date mean that wild tigers are now safe. They are safe because they are being protected and measures are being introduced to reduce human-tiger conflict. If we stop patrolling, sadly, wild tigers will die.

Forest Fires

The mahua season is here and with it comes the increased risk of forest fires. Today our poaching patrols had to quench a forest fire which raged because collectors burnt leaves around the base of mahua trees to aid their flower harvest, and their fires weren’t controlled. These forest fires can continue to burn for days on end, with efforts to extinguish them hampered by changing winds. Where possible our patrols help to create fire breaks to stop the flames in their tracks, but sometimes they risk their own lives helping forest department rangers to beat down the flames as fires spread. Such bravery in saving wild animals and their forest home should not go unnoticed.

The risk of forest fires will be high for the next few months as the forest is parched dry through lack of rainfall and searing heat. Wild tiger habitat cannot afford to be ravaged by fires as there is precious little left. Our increased patrolling will help to identify fires early, create fire breaks and help with extinguishing the fires when needed. This is extra work for our patrols in addition to the regular anti-poaching duties so our decision to make tripled patrolling the new standard will be vital to ensuring the safety of Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers from all the threats they may face.

Making a Difference

Right now, thanks to your continued support and with tripled patrols, we’re can cover an extra 1000 km (624 miles) of wild tiger territory per month. This gives us more time to search for snares; traps and signs of poisoners around forest areas where human encroachment is rife; and around the periphery of villages where crop raiding and livestock killing is rife. It also gives us more time to fight the forest fires which are prevalent at this time of year. Increased patrolling helps us to curb human encroachment into wild tigers’ territories, and allows us to provide safety advice for those trying to protect their crops and livestock from wandering elephants and tigers respectively.

With over 50 new tiger cubs born since the start of the pandemic, we have many more wild tigers to keep safe now. So we still need your help. Your gift today, however large or small can make a huge difference as to whether Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers can survive these unprecedented threats:

A gift of £25 ($35) will help us to pay a patrolling team for a day

A gift of £30 ($42) will provide hot nutritious meals for a patrolling team for a day whilst they’re on duty

A gift of £45 ($63) will ensure that we can transport a team of anti-poaching patrollers to a remote location for a day’s patrolling

A gift of £100 ($142) will ensure that a team of patrollers can cover 125 km (78 miles) of wild tiger territory in a day

A monthly gift of £12 (US$17) per month will help us to pay an anti-poaching patroller for 35 days per year.

Without our help, we know that more wild tigers will die; and more humans will be mauled or killed due to encroachment or human-tiger conflict. Sadly, with every human life lost comes another threat to the wild tiger’s survival in the form of retaliation; thus we must protect both if we are to ensure that wild tigers can have a wild future.

Please don’t hesitate if you can help, your donation can be the difference between life and death for a wild tiger, as it helps to increase our patrolling when it is most needed. Every tiger and every tiger cub counts. Thank you for making our fight against poachers, the changing climate and human-animal conflict possible.