Above: Relative safety in Kanha.

Below: Endangered Wild Buffalo in Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary, May 2001. Photos by Amit Kher, GG.

THE HUNTING OF THE TIGER has been banned in India for more than thirty years, though the international market for tiger body parts ensures that ruthless poaching is still a major threat. Click for latest World Tiger Population.

Other species are in grave danger for less headline-grabbing reasons: loss of habitat from deforestation, industrial activity, cultivation and encroachment by huge domestic herds.

Kanha National Park was created in 1955, not at first for the tiger, but in part to successfully protect the 'twelve-tined' Barasingha (Cervus duvauceli branderi), the unique Central Indian swamp deer.

Today the pure Wild Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis - B. arnee), ancestor of the domestic water buffalo and adopted as State Animal of Chattisgarh, is close to extinction in Secret India. Elsewhere it can now be found wild only in Assam, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand, in fast declining numbers.

Hunting, interbreeding, even diamond prospecting are all contributing to the rapid disappearance of this magnificent and ancient species which can grow to well over 1000 kg.

Its remaining numbers in Chattisgarh's Indravati National Park and Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary are at most a few hundred, possibly, from latest reports, now only a few dozen.

In the southern forests of Bastar, the Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa peninsularis), renowned for its musical abilities and adopted as Chattisgarh's State Bird, also faces an insecure future.
(Illustration: J P Irani, courtesy Bombay Natural History Society)

Market forces, official apathy and security issues in many remote areas make conservation in Secret India a permanent uphill battle. Indravati National Park, one of the most important biospheres in the whole suncontinent, has become a no-go area for forest officers and naturalists alike owing to the turbulent insecurities of Dantewara District. Its designation as a Reserve under Project Tiger may shortly have to be withdrawn.