In time for International Tiger Day, TMS spoke with Sunil Gadhoke, a Delhi-based entrepreneur-turned-wildlife photographer, about his recently launched coffee-table book, Long Live The Tiger. Released in March, the book features Gadhoke's stunning photographs of tigers from various Indian reserves and emphasises the importance of tiger conservation and habitat preservation.
“Tigers are the most majestic animals. Like many, I too always wanted to see them in their natural habitat,” shares Gadhoke. When he heard his friends' stories about the growing tiger population, his interest piqued and drew him into the forests with his camera.
Never a dull moment in the jungle
“Usually, male tigers are not the ones who care for their cubs; the small ones learn from their mother. But there have been instances when, upon the death of the mother, a male tiger hunted for his cubs,” he explains. One such example is from Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve, where a male tiger was seen taking care of four orphaned cubs. This behaviour in male tigers is so rare that it made national news.
There is never a dull moment in the forest, believes Gadhoke. “There is always so much to learn,” he says. One of his favourite tigers to study was Ganesh (T120) from Ranthambore, also featured on his book cover. “Ganesh showed signs of dominance, and it was interesting to observe how it all started,” he says. As tigers grow, male tigers travel larger distances to avoid inbreeding, while female tigers stay closer to their mother. Young male tigers, around two years old, start to roam far and act in ways to assert their dominance and protect themselves as they enter the territories of adult tigers. “However, at this age, their physique is not fully developed, so they don’t hunt in the core areas. They look for easy hunts, which draws them closer to grazing lands as cattle are easily available there. These areas are called buffer zones, and most human-wildlife conflicts happen in these areas,” he notes.
The ‘how’ and ‘why’ of conservation
Over the last five years, Gadhoke has spent countless hours in tiger reserves, he has identified areas needing improvement, particularly in community practices. Farming and grazing activities, unchanged for centuries, still lead people and cattle into forests, often resulting in conflicts in buffer areas. He believes cooperative farming and protected grazing can address these conflicts. “There are successful examples in India; it just needs to be implemented seriously,” he adds.
He also emphasises the critical role tigers play in maintaining the balance of their ecosystems. The Sariska incident is one such example where the extinction of tigers by 2004 led to an overpopulation of antlers and overgrazing, disrupting the food pyramid. Similar concerns arose with deers of Hauz Khas Deer Park and relocation to the wild was suggested, which was later halted. “Nature always has a plan, and it is better not to disrupt it as it then disturbs the entire system. This is why we need to conserve our wildlife and also not interfere with nature,” he mentions.
Tiger conservation in India is an approach that protects tigers without interfering with their natural instincts, he notes. “Our conservation program is unique because we create the environment for the tiger but do not interfere with it. I remember seeing photos from Harbin (Northeast China’s Siberian Tiger Park) where Amur tigers patiently wait for a van to come and feed them chicken. This is not conserving tigers, it is killing their instincts,” he says.
His book also notes the challenges of tracking the conservation project as tigers are not collared, making it difficult to monitor them between censuses. However, camera traps have proven effective in studying their growth and routines, despite the highly challenging process. “When one thinks of a coffee table book, one thinks of a visually rich book. Thus, it needs to be centred around iconic images that portray the magnificence of tigers. Only a large format could do justice to the photos,” he adds.