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Tiger town turns to poaching tourists By Raja Murthy RAMNAGAR, Kumaon Himalayas - In Ramnagar, near the Corbett National Park, much-hyped tigers don't have to worry about going extinct. The tigers run this town.  Everyone from the innkeepers, safari-jeep drivers, guides, forest camp owners, brokers, travel agents, shopkeepers and even tea stall operators - about 90% of the 100,000 people in Ramnagar - depend on the park for their livelihood. If the tigers go, we go, said locals when I arrived there early morning on April 10.  I was in Corbett land, at the foothills of the Kumaon Himalayas, to follow up the announcement that India's tiger population had risen      by 20%, to 1,706. India's environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh released the statistics, taken from a 2010 census, at the International Tiger Conference in New Delhi in late March.  The tiger surge was glad tidings for nationwide "Save the Tiger" campaigns, including one last year that featured India's cricket World Cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and the World Wildlife Fund. An earlier census had reported an alarming decline in the tiger population.  The rising tiger numbers included Corbett Tiger Reserve, strengthening Ramnagar's claims to being the tiger capital of the world. Yet workers there aren't exactly happy with the attention.  "The increase in tigers shouldn't be publicized," said tiger safari operator Parbhat Singh. "It just attracts the attention of poachers." I met Parbhat within minutes of arriving at Ramnagar at 3.30 am, Sunday, after a series of overnight journeys from Rishikesh to Haridwar and then from to Kashinagar to Ramnagar.  Ramnagar town, 240 kilometers northeast of New Delhi and gateway to the Kumaon Himalayas, is the headquarters of Corbett Park, the world's oldest tiger reserve and Asia's oldest national park, currently celebrating its 75th year.  Named after the British tiger killer turned tiger conservationist Colonel Jim Corbett (1875 - 1955), Corbett Park covers 1,318 square kilometers including 520 square kilometers of core area. It has the world's highest tiger density.  When the bus reached Ramnagar, I was hoping a merciful tea maker was working this early in the morning. But I blinked , amazed. The place was lit up like it was Diwali, the festival of lights. A blaze of bulbs flooded the main street, with people bustling about at a time when even a milk van would be rare sight in Mumbai and New Delhi.  About two dozen buses were parked in stretches, tea stalls flourishing. There were even push cart vendors selling sweets - at 3.30 am. It was surreal. Had I strayed into some La La Land, or Land of the Midnight Sun, India Branch? I wondered.  One of the unholy hour denizens directed me to the Corbett Tiger Reserve Office. In the darkness outside the office complex, I met a safari jeep driver Akram Khan. He assured me that the 6 am expedition was booked 15 days in advance, but that I could get the afternoon ride into Corbett.  Two hours later, I came to know this was all part of an elaborate racket in Ramnagar, in the name of the tiger - with fake safari and forest rest house bookings and outrageously overpriced safari rides. The cheapest of the safaris, at US$ 27, was over five times the price of an equivalent at the neighboring Rajaji National Park, with plenty of victims getting taken for a ride.  The local version of poaching was apparently not aimed at the tiger.  Confirmation came after Akram Khan invited me for chai. Beside a roadside tea wagon, he introduced me to Parbhat Singh, a swarthy Sikh gentleman about 40 years old. Parbhat was a striking sight with a jungle of thick beard, black turban, flaming dark eyes and collar-less white T-shirt stretched over a paunch. He was hailed locally as "Honey" Singh. "On account of his sweet nature," explained Akram. "Honey" Singh grunted, and stroked his moustache.  He then proceeded to make startling disclosures over steaming hot tea. He said he had been closely involved for eight months in the previous tiger census in Corbett Park. "We saw to it that the tiger numbers were under-reported in the census," he declared.  If true, Parbhat Singh's revelation considerably damages the credibility of the latest tiger numbers.  The Himalayan Royal Bengal Tiger, the Asian version of Panthera tigris, with a two-million year ancestry, is described by tiger lovers as one of the more spectacular of the species. The tiger loves solitude, needs very wide open spaces, likes to live, work and fight its battles alone. But in the likes of "Honey" Singh, the tiger apparently has allies who believe that its survival depends on not celebrating its survival.  Parbhat has been involved with tigers for 25 years, says Akram Khan. Parbat also alleged that tiger poaching goes on with connivance of some Corbett Park employees. "Many of them are corrupt," he said in an unemotional monotone. "The officials here have to change for the better."  Exorbitantly priced hotels, safari rides, and greasy-palmed government bureaucrats were not around these parts when Edward James Corbett was around. Legend says Corbett himself hunted down over 40 tigers, all supposed to be man-eaters prowling the Kumaon. Corbett was born in nearby Nainital, 65 kilometers away from Ramnagar, a famous Himalayan resort. He died in Kenya.  Ramnagar should have been more accurately called Corbett Nagar(settlement). The place is awash with his name - Corbett Spa and Resort, Corbett Leisure Resort, Corbett Hideaway, Jim's Jungle Retreat, Corbett Tiger Den Resort, Corbett Jungle Club, Corbett Kingdom, Corbett International. "Corbett Tea Stall" flourishes from opposite the Corbett Director's office. The resident barber, in blasphemous oversight, forgot to hang up a board saying "Corbett Hairdressing".  Jim Corbett and his tigers would have been amazed at the even more spectacular goings-in at the booking office honoring their name. It was about 4.00 am when Messrs "Honey" Singh and Akram Khan escorted me there for the business side of proceedings. Shadowy figures were already crowding the dark verandah outside the closed doors of the office scheduled to open at 6.00 am.  "Honey" Singh promptly established his boss status. "You two go back there," he ordered those at the head of the queue, and calmly sat himself down in their place. In another hour, the small verandah was a heaving, tense mass of about 50 people in the darkness waiting for the office to open.  "Is it always like this when you come here?" I asked a software professional from Delhi who said he visits Corbett Park often. "I've seen worse," he replied.  But like most things in India, the threatening chaos dissolved into order when the office opened. The riot squad wasn't needed. Permits, visiting and lodging rights were peacefully issued for the four safari zones of the Corbett Park, even as birds chirped their good mornings from trees outside the office.  Military-green jeeps and special "canter" buses, with high roofs and no windows, rolled out of the parking lot for the 6.00 a.m safari. Only about 90 vehicles are permitted at a time within Corbett Park, but jeep drivers allege officials inside are bribed to book guests from luxury resorts instantly while falsely putting up "house full" status for the general public.  The alleged goon squad inside the office is already giving an exhausted British couple and their two young children the time of their lives. The couple had pre-paid days in advance for stay in a government-owned forest rest house, but the female and two male clerks repeatedly tell them for over four hours, "Wait, I will check the status and let you know".  From past reported experiences in this Ramnagar office, the goon squad could have illegally re-sold the British family's accommodation, and were brazenly stalling in a shameful advertisement to the Indian tourism ministry's multi-million dollar "Incredible India" campaign.  "Things were not like this in Ramnagar 35 years ago," says Kesar Singh, an elderly shop owner in the town outskirts, en route to the Aamdanada Gate of the Corbett Tiger Reserve. "There were only huts here, and few people came to the Corbett Park. This rush started about five years ago."  The tigers too don't seem to appreciate the change. "Years ago, tigers would sometimes come here to the gate, crossing the road," says Ghanshyam, who for 14 years has run the Corbett Souvenir Shop at the Aamdanda Gate entrance to the Corbett Park. "Not anymore".  My stay in Corbett land did not confirm whether tigers were increasing or decreasing, but it did let me know for sure that Jim Corbett would have fled Corbett town as if all the maneaters of Kumaon were snapping at his heels.  (Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)