Fact Finding

The tiger adorns every tourism poster, millions have been spent trying to protect it, and dozens of tigerbooks have been written based largely on casual observation and anecdote.

- Akshai Jain

Yet we know little about India’s national animal, points out conservation biologist Raghu Chundawat in his new book, Rise and Fall of the Emerald Tigers, because there have been only three actual long-term scientific studies: George Schaller’s pioneering work in Kanha in the 1960s, Ullas Karanth’s truncated study in Nagarhole in the early 1990s, and Chundawat’s study of the tigers of Panna Tiger Reserve between 1996 and 2004.

When Chundawat came to Panna, the reserve had 15 tigers. He aimed to take a scientific snapshot of tiger society in its dry tropical forests. How large were the territories occupied by males and females?

How did the seasonal availability of different types of prey affect it? What were the hierarchies within tiger society? What was the interaction between tigers and villagers who live adjoining the park? Such questions were essential to understand the dynamics of this tiger population and formulating strategies to ensure its survival. To find the answers, Chundawat and his team radio-collared and tracked 41 tigers for eight years as they roamed a 400 square kilometre area within the reserve.

In the depth of its engagement and its trajectory, the resulting book rivals