Enigmatic Dogs

Started getting Mint on Saturdays on a friend’s suggestion and read a piece by Ananda Banerjee ‘The dhole remains an enigma, even as it struggles for survival’ on 19th April 2014. More than happy on coming across a non-tiger piece on the front-page and positively agree on the species being an enigma. Dictionary.com refers to enigma as ‘puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation’ and ‘a person of puzzling or contradictory character’.

 

However, by the time I folded-up the paper, some questions had propped up.

v ‘It was last seen in north India a full 10 years ago, at Ranthambore in Rajasthan’ ~ does this refer to tourists? Locals? Published literature? Or else?

v ‘After 35 years of my study there are still lingering questions’ ~ Would not questions ever exist for each species given the dynamic socio-economic-ecological-climate situation in the landscapes today?

v What about the people who share the landscapes with the species? Their views on and experiences with the species?

v It also left me wondering if efforts to conserve the species are on and whether what little research has taken place has contributed to its conservation!

Conversations concerning the Wild Dog (Dhole), which I had been a part of, met my wandering mind more than once and I ended up putting them on paper first and Microsoft Word later.

During 2002 – 2004 when I was based at Agraa (Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh) on the periphery of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) colleagues used to share of how the species was not uncommon few years earlier in the forests around their villages. Their villages then stood in what is today the heart of the Kuno WLS. Disease had wiped out a large chunk of the species’ population since, they shared. Once, when we discussed team-work in a meeting, one of them had stated the Wild Dog (Jungli Kutta) to be perfect example. Hunts in group and can even bring down a tiger I was told.

Recent WWF India report on Central Indian forests ‘Lifeline for Tigers : Status and Conservation of the Kanha – Pench Corridor’ states: Dholes were reported killing goats and cattle calves, but they were only photo-captured in camera traps while scavenging on tiger kills (while discussing camera-traps) and Dholes rarely preyed on cattle and mostly killed goats and small cattle calf. (while discussing compensation )

We undertook a questionnaire based survey on large mammals (those heavier than 1 kg) during my days at Baghmara (South Garo Hills, Meghalaya). This was during 2004 – 2005 and concerned villages between the Baghmara Reserve Forest and the Balpakram National Park; part of the Garo Hills Elephant Reserve.  I revisited the report and excel-sheets to look up the Wild Dog (Sejal, Se.el) and this is what they put forth

v Of the 334 respondents only 32 had sighted it in their village lands during the past 5 years.

v Each respondent was asked to state 3 species that had increased and 3 that had decreased in the past 5 years in their village lands. While none of them said its population was on the rise the column depicting number of those who had indicated its numbers had gone down read 35.

v It featured in the list of species that caused damage to livestock albeit only from 1 village.

Amidst news of habitats losing species at alarming frequency the Times of India in April 2014 carried a report on the Wild Dog thus:Dhole was sighted for the first time in the Jaldapara National Park in West Bengal recently. This was Kodalbasti area during March 2014. 

In February 2009 I was a part of the team that took up the preliminary survey for the then proposed Tokalo WLS (Saiha, Mizoram). Colleagues hailed from villages that dotted the India – Burma border which Tokalo caresses. During the survey colleagues spotted the Wild Dog on one occasion. As I sat with them and chatted over the field-guides later that evening, deep inside the silent darkness of the tropical forest, they harboured no doubts on the species’ identity. As if to cement it further one of the colleagues remarked “it also whistles”.

Trips to Dampa WLS (lies in Mizoram’s north-western part as opposed to Tokalo which is extreme south-east) in recent years have revealed that camera-traps have frequently trapped the Wild Dog. A publication by Mizoram forest department refers to the species as Chinghnia in Mizo while R A Lorrain in his seminal book on the region refers to it as Cha-ngi in Mara language.

In his ‘The Mammals of North East India,’ published in 2013, Dr Anwaruddin Choudhury remarks:
In parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, the Dhole is considered a major problem animal as it frequently kills domestic cattle, yak, mithun, sheep and occasionally pony. In fact, to kill yaks, it moves up to 4,100 m elevation in the Himalaya. (Cites: Appendix II IUCN: EN)

During the past 2 – 3 years I have enjoyed Nagaland’s hospitality and Wild Dog has been a part of the conversations here as well.

We had walked the boundary of a Community Conserved Area (CCA) along the Dikhu River (Mokokchung), for a week to help prepare a map, with people who had taken the initiative. Going by the dictum – talk as you walk – we discussed a basket-full of topics with them but remained biased to mammals on their lands. Mammals in context of shifting-cultivation and monoculture plots, hunting and conflict with human-beings, local names and else. Here we were told of hyenas being common! As we tried to overcome our surprise and shared that they do not occur in these parts we came across scats! These appeared couple of days old and contained wild-pig hair. Hyena scat we were told! We then asked what the species ate besides wild pig and further prodding in the direction revealed it to hunt in groups and eat its prey alive! Throughout we had a nagging feel of the Hyena being the Wild Dog and what little doubts remained were sealed when the field-guides were put to use.

At a meeting in Kohima where CCAs were deliberated at length Wild Dog too came up. It brought out a stark disconnect between the published science of the day and situation on ground and the need to communicate with people who share the landscape with these species. On one hand Journal of the BNHS, had in its then latest issue, carried a note on the sighting from Fakim WLS (Khiphere); state’s easternmost fringes i.e. it was rare enough to merit a note and on the other friends from the state shared of the species having been declared a vermin in Khonoma (yes – of the tragopan fame!) on account of the high level of conflict with human-beings and it was not uncommon to shoot it!

Enigma indeed!

Images are from Dampa Tiger Reserve: Many thanks to Pu Tlana and Dampa Tiger Reserve. Thanks are also due to Ananda Banerjee for writing the piece that encouraged this post as also quickly reverting to queries.