https://www.cntraveller.in/sto...-prince-gave-jungle/


Link has a photo of a Gir Lion from 1907.



The Indian prince who gave it all up for the jungle

MK Ranjitsinh’s new memoir on wildlife conservation is the stuff of legend


Saumya Ancheri AUGUST 18, 2017

MK Ranjitsinh learned to read a forest as a child, growing up in the royal family of Wankaner in Saurashtra. He took notes from the trackers and hunters who reported on the daily movements of each tiger in his uncle’s territory. His most cherished moments were of watching leopards from a hideout in his family’s forest. He would touch the glass roof to feel the warmth of the animal resting above.

Ranjitsinh was named after his grandfather’s friend and famous cricketer, Ranjitsinhji. As the Jamsaheb of Jamnagar, Ranjitsinhji was known as the most lavish hunting host of all the princes. But unlike his namesake, Ranjitsinh realised the importance of conserving wildlife while on a hunt in Madhya Pradesh. The encounter, which he shares below, eventually led him to frame the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Ranjitsinh was India’s first director of wildlife preservation, serving two terms. He also helped initiate Project Tiger and Project Snow Leopard.


Ranjitsinh’s anecdotes in his new book, A Life with Wildlife: from Princely India to the Present, are the stuff of legend. He recalls the most extravagant hunts, beneficial protectors of wildlife and his encounters with Indira Gandhi in making landmark policies. Excerpts from our interview:

You come from the royal family of Wankaner. Your ancestors used to hunt animals, as was custom. There are some pretty overwhelming images of “trophies” of 43 tigers and 71 leopards from a single winter shooting camp in your new book. How did you come to make a life preserving Indian wildlife?

My family was always interested in wildlife because the hunting era was very much in vogue and their interest in wildlife came through hunting mainly. There are two kinds of hunters: one regards animals as a target of the weapon. The second loves animals and uses a gun to possess them! He shoots an animal because he wants to possess it so no one else can! That act of possession results in the death of an animal and afterwards, there is remorse. It’s difficult to explain and certainly not justifiable.

There was more wildlife in those states where the royal family was interested in hunting, than in those where the royal family or the ruler was not. I’m not saying this to defend hunting but to state the facts as they are.

I love animals and I love to photograph them, which gives the same kind of ownership as a trophy does.

You even convinced your uncle, armed rifleman Chandrabhanusinh of Wankaner, to stop shooting! What role did your family play in your career? Was there resistance to your joining the IAS?

I got encouragement from them. They allowed me to run wild. I am very grateful they let me. At a very young age, I was allowed to camp out in the mountains when I was in my teens. There was encouragement and no resistance to my joining the IAS. I was encouraged to find my feet and seek my fortune outside of Wankaner. Two of my maternal uncles were officers in the ICS and IAS.


What made you turn away from hunting?

It was gradual, it started many years ago. I was asked to shoot a troublesome bear but a magnificent tiger in a full winter coat appeared and I couldn’t press that trigger. It was 30 yards away and I let it go. Every time I tried to focus on the foresight of the rifle, my eyes would focus on the coat of the tiger which was so magnificent. People must have thought I didn’t have the guts because I was on the ground and the tiger was level. I was close but he never saw me, and he went past.

As a collector in Madhya Pradesh, you’ve helped save the barasingha from going extinct. There’s even a subspecies of barasingha named after you! Tell us about the process.

Nothing should be allowed to go extinct. Those that are more in need should be helped more. Our conservation is too tiger-centric; other species fall by the way. My maternal uncle was the collector of Mandla, and it was my ambition to come as the collector of Mandla. Brander’s barasingha was only found in Kanha National Park, Mandla. The posting I asked for after my tenure in Dhar was Mandla. Only 64 barasingha were left in the world in the national park. It was my mission to save them, the Great Indian Bustard and some others later. The sangai in Manipur—14 animals in one habitat—was once the rarest taxa in the world. Now there are a couple of hundred.

There were two subspecies of barasingha, those in the terai region of India and Nepal, and those in Kanha. I found the barasingha in Kaziranga and Manas in Assam were distinct from the other two and were a different subspecies and published a paper on it. Colin Groves, a taxonomist, studied and confirmed that it was a separate subspecies and named the new eastern subspecies after me.

You’ve helped establish 14 new sanctuaries, 8 new national parks, added over 9,000sqkm to existing parks. What has been the key to accomplishing all this?

Whether animal or flora, our natural heritage will survive only in effectively protected parks and sanctuaries. Elsewhere, there is population pressure. Our parks are islands surrounded by humanity. I took the opportunity when I came back from the United Nations as the forest secretary of Madhya Pradesh, to establish parks and sanctuaries. They still remain our only havens of hope where nature will survive, if effectively managed. I wanted to save the grasslands. India has the largest livestock population in the world and they’re all free-grazing and our grasslands are misused and overused.

We have seen more and more Indians become aware of our amazing wildlife and travel to parks on safaris. What else can tourists do to help?

People in India go to parks to see mega animals like tiger, elephant, or the rhino in Kaziranga. There is no communion with nature; we go to ogle at animals. Our wildlife conservation effort is too mega-mammal oriented. There is a whole series of animals and flora and birds that the government must make all efforts to save. The media plays an important role. If one tiger dies outside a national park it makes headlines, and why not, but if the hog deer, which is the food for the tiger, goes extinct in Corbett National Park, which it will, no one will shed a tear. That is wrong.

If you had to recommend one destination in India for travellers to visit for the wildlife, where would it be and why?

Ladakh. You’ll have to walk. You can’t see it all from a car. You’ll experience what the armed forces have to face. The climate is cold but bracing. There’s unparalleled fauna and the Himalayas are exceptional. It was my first mountain trip and I keep going back to Ladakh to revive and rejuvenate.


You’ve also travelled extensively abroad and have amazing images from everywhere—Antarctica, Norway, Brazil, Namibia, Alaska, Tajikistan. Which place really blew you away and why?

There are so many wilderness places. Many places in Africa and Antarctica are very special, like Kruger in South Africa; Alaska; parts of Asia like Indonesia; Krygyzstan, Tajikistan. The Pamirs, the “roof of the world”—the people are very attractive and charismatic, not too many animals on the world’s highest mountain plateau but there are Marco Polo sheep—the largest horned wild sheep—snow leopard, wolf, the largest ibex. The Tian Shan is another magnificent mountain range.

What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned during your many years out in the wild?

There’s always more to learn. Listen to the locals, they have a lot to tell and teach you. The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know. Bigger animals like the tiger are very predictable, you know what they’ll do and they mostly do it. But there are so many traits that you never read about and come to learn after watching animals.

A Life with Wildlife: from Princely India to the Present (Harper Collins) by Dr MK Ranjitsinh is out.

Overall India has screwed up the management of its wildlife. No doubt in some areas game has thrived and now reaching plague proportions but they wont learn or don't care to learn about managing this issue. Very sad!

They are totally anti-hunting as well. Indian hunters find it nearly impossible to import their trophies in to India. They have a look alike list of species and to them an impala looks like a black buck so cannot be imported and an eland looks like a bluebull and so on and so on...

Interesting

I met him in 1971 when he was Joint Secretary of Wildlife Government Of India. I was 15 years old and in Periayar sanctuary Thekady with my family on holiday. Dad was in Forestry & Wildlife as a IFS officer.

Ranjitsinh used to hunt - in Africa and in India. By 71 tiger hunting was stopped.

We got the opportunity to accompany him on the various boat trips in the sanctuary seeing game. We did not see any tiger or leopard but we did see Indian dhole (wild dog) and even caught a half grown one that was crossing the lake.

India would be a hunters paradise if NGO's with community management and control were introduced, as was done in Pakistan.

The Urial, Ibex, Chinkara and Markhor are flourishing in Pakistan. The local communities derive a huge benefit and get to keep 80% of the license fees.

Maybe one day the Government of India may see the light.

Aziz

They never will and because Pakistan allows hunting , they will not in spite

The problem in India is that we have too many villages around our forests - even up to 11000 feet in the Himalayas.

The present government has started to allow crop protection licenses for pigs & nilghai but there is a lot of political one-upmanship in the mix.

The latest update is that no more crop protection licences are issued. Also in the past one could only hunt them in their field and nowhere else. More over once you shot the animal you had to inform the sarpanch ( elected headmen ) and the police. Once they arrive at the site of the kill then you had to bury it in their presence. The police would than take a statement of the same only to be sent to the district police chief,district administration head and one copy to the forest department. People like Mr.Ranjitsinh never advocated for controlled hunting reasons which I would not like to bring up on the forum. Any way wildlife is dying everyday here in various fashion and the Asiatic Lions are being poisoned by the day and also the leopards.Even if they would have allowed 8yrs plus old cats to be taken by trophy hunters the government would have made millions. All a WASTE India has lost its wildlife no future. My humble suggestion please treasure your old hunting books of India to prove to the next generation that there was alot of game during princely india and princesses hunted with respect to wildlife.

Hello Bapu

That makes me very sad. Is there no way that like minded people like yourself can get together and start with a single State at the grass root level.

I can tell you that in Pakistan IUCN and WWF were instrumental in convincing the government to establish local community NGO's to take care of the wildlife in a sustainable way.

These organizations added the legitimacy needed for the government to even listen to the local people.

I think if no one tries then it makes a lot of us who know better complicit with the people involved in the illegal destruction of India's wildlife heritage.

Regards
Aziz

Aziz bhai

The problem in India is that there is a BIG anti hunting culture which is complicated by the vegetarian tradition as well.

The high population and high literacy and media savvy has resulted in every tom dick and harry joining in the noise and looking for photo ops and TV time.

Corruption is also a big issue.

A well connected hunter who has shot man eaters, now has contacts in high places and got the contract to cull many nilghai and chital. He charged Rs1200 per animal! This is no longer about hunting but crony politics and corruption.

Pakistan does not have the vegetarian issue and so there are far fewer anti hunter. Moreover the remote mountains have far fewer cities compared to India. So the local rural people have a stronger voice.

Nakihunter has put it very correctly as it seems
he knows the ground situation well. The well connected hunters are shooting animals unethically and NOT hunting. I would not enjoy the sport in that fashion.This is all culling as I may put it.If I may ask you do read alot about India Nakihunter.

Hello gentlemen

I am very sad to hear your assessment, I was hopeful that some day hunting would reopen in India.

Thank you for sharing your insight.

Regards
Aziz