Freedom in a cage - a critical look at captive breeding

On the 64th anniversary of India's freedom, we wonder about the efficacy of captive breeding programs. Are they really worth it?

In the last six odd decades since Independence, India has been witness to the exploitation of its wildlife and natural resources along with apathy to diminishing forests coexisting with strident conservation initiatives. In this land of abundant wildlife, royals and nobles were enamoured with shikar. With ample help from their English masters, they brought about a rapid decline in the population of species large and small. In the latter part of our history, conservation programs have attempted to create safe havens for endangered species. Some conservationists have enthusiastically embraced the idea of captive breeding and reintroduction. Programs aimed at augmenting the wild population of the species have yielded mixed results. On Independence Day, we look at the issue of freedom in captivity. Does it really make sense?

The Himalayan Musk Deer (Moschus chrysogaster)

IUCN Categorization: EN –Endangered

The last surviving Musk Deer (2006) at the Kedarnath Breeding Centre

The Himalayan Musk Deer found in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Kumaon regions of India were extensively poached for the musk pods borne by male deer. A captive breeding program was commenced in 1980-81 at Kanchula Kharak in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand with a pair of Musk Deer. Thirty years later the program has slipped into obscurity. In 2006, when Sahastra visited the breeding center, he saw the last survivor of the program. The fact that the Musk Deer had perished due to disease and climatic conditions, indicate insufficient monitoring of these parameters.

Kedarnath Sanctuary in the Garhwal Himalayas protects critical Musk Deer habitat

Siberian Crane  - The Lily of Birds according to A O Hume (image courtesy ICF) 

The Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus)

IUCN Categorization: CR – Critically Endangered

Siberian Cranes had three distinct populations at the turn of the last century: the Eastern flock migrating to China, the Western flock to Iran, and the Central flock to India which wintered in the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The long migration routes of these birds make them vulnerable to hunting. In 1993 a captive breeding program was carried out with two captive bred Siberian cranes introduced to the Keoladeo National Park to unite with the migrant flock and return with them to the breeding sites in Siberia. The birds stayed back and subsequent attempts to introduce captive-bred birds to the migrating flock failed as well. As the Siberian Cranes form strong social bonds at birth, the plan to see the captive-bred cranes fly back to Siberia failed as the cranes did not get sufficient time to build new social bonds with the wild cranes.

Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus)

Gangetic Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus)

IUCN Categorization: CR – Critically Endangered

Gharials dwell in deep, fast-flowing rivers, which offer them abundant fish and sand banks for nesting. The threats they face are mainly from loss of habitat due to sand-mining, dams and irrigation projects, and hunting for their skin. In addition, depletion of prey fish due to overfishing has impacted the Gharial population. In 1976, after their population had dipped below 200 individuals, an effort in the form of Project Crocodile was launched for captive rearing of the Gharial. The National Chambal Sanctuary was set up in 1979 to protect the Gharial. Numbers have since dwindled after a major catastrophe resulting from pollutants in the river three years later, which resulted in the death of 113 animals. While captive breeding of Gharials has helped increase their numbers, it is imperative to safeguard the rivers that form the creatures' habitat.

Gangetic Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) in a Zoo

One-Horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis)

IUCN Categorization: VU - Vulnerable

Once ranging from the floodplains of the Indus to those of the Ganga and Brahmaputra, the Indian One-horned Rhinoceros was a familiar sight along the three great rivers. However, the fragmentation and destruction of its habitat for agriculture, and excessive hunting and poaching for its horn (which commands a huge black-market price as an aphrodisiac) saw the rhino population plummet, prompting stringent conservation efforts. As the majority of the rhinos are in Kaziranga, the skewed distribution of the rhino population adds to the risk of extinction in the event of a major calamity at Kaziranga. In 1984, a rhino reintroduction project was commenced in Dudhwa in a demarcated zone called the Rhino Reintroduction Area, which prevented possible conflicts between rhinos and the existing macro-fauna of the park such as tigers and elephants. A calf born in July is the latest addition to the rhino population. The phased approach to introduction with constant monitoring of feeding habits, spatial use patterns and other behavioral aspects has contributed to the partial success of the program so far.

Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica)

IUCN Categorization: EN –Endangered

The lion lionised on an India postage stamp

Records exist of the Asiatic Lion in Bihar, Delhi, Bundelkhand and Rajasthan. However, the lions in these regions were exterminated during the latter half of the 19th century. In the first decade of the 20th century, the only known population of the Asiatic Lion existed in the Gir region of the erstwhile princely state of Junagarh. The population has since sprung back in Gir and the renowned success story has prompted thoughts of the lions' relocation to other regions in India like Palpur-Kuno in Madhya Pradesh. One such attempt at relocation was made in 1957 when a lion and two lionesses from Gir were introduced in the Chandraprabha sanctuary near Varanasi. The pride soon grew to 11 by 1965 before abruptly disappearing. This proves the feasibility of relocation for the Gir lions as the lions had survived for seven years following relocation. 

References:

• Forest Department, Audit Report for the year ended 31 March 2006 - Chapter III 

• Protected Area Update – News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia, Vol XVII, No 2, Apr 2011

• Gharial Gavialis Gangeticus - Colin Stevenson and Romulus Whitaker

• Gharial Our River Guardian - Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India

• Management of the reintroduced Greater One Horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in the Dudhwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh, India S P Sinha and V B Sawarkar, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun (UP), India

• The Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis Linnaus, 1758) S.P. Sinha

• Reintroduction of Greater Indian Rhinoceros into Dudhwa National Park – John B. Sale and Samar Singh

• Story of India’s Lions – Divyabhanusinh (National Centre for the Performing Arts (India), Marg Publications)

Text by Anand Yegnaswami

Picture credits :

Siberian Crane - ICF (www.savingcranes.org)

Musk Deer and Kedarnath: Sahastrarashmi

Other photos: Wikimedia Commons

Infographic by Beej

Furious Aila and prescient Amitav

The minutes crept by and the objects flying through the air grew steadily larger. Where first there had been only twigs, leaves and branches there were now whirling coconut palms and spinning tree trunks. Piya knew that the gale had reached full force when she saw something that looked like a whole island hanging suspended above their heads: it was a large clump of mangroves, held together by the trees' intertwined roots. - Amitav Ghosh The Hungry Tide 


Ghosh makes the spectacle of the whirling wind seem as enchanting as in The Wizard of Oz but infinitely more threatening. His writing is magical - as if he has seen it all. Or perhaps, as people of the Sunderbans might say, if you have seen one cyclone and lived to tell the tale, you have seen them all. In these parts, do they measure the longevity of their lives by the storms they have survived? The Sunderbans and their neighbourhood have been battered time and again by the most furious and bloodthirsty of storms. Each cyclone whips up a seemingly unending wave of suffering that generation after generation of people must endure. Their wretched homes torn asunder, their emaciated livestock drowned, and their meagre savings gone to seed, the survivors are perhaps unluckier than the victims. They are faced with the crushing and intimidating prospect of beginning their lives all over again. As if this were not sorrow enough, they are encumbered by the absence of family members who were once their sustenance and stay. 


Number-obsessed statisticians are auditing assets gone to waste and counting bodies - human, mostly. Environmentalists are mourning the loss of habitats, which have either wiped out or displaced the region's fauna: dolphins, gharials, tigers... and these are only the charismatic species. How much has been lost forever we can only tell when the hungry tide is satiated. Of these sinister storms, Cyclone Aila was the most recent. And she certainly won't be the last. Despite all the technology at our command (and our consequent hubris), we will never be capable of stopping natural disasters in their tracks. Meteorologists can issue warnings. Governments can cry out for aid. Relief workers can mop up the mess. And the media can weep and wail, insinuate and blame, and generally prolong the suffering for as long as public sentiment lasts. But despite all of that, we cannot predict the weight of nature's wrath. We can only measure its aftermath. And count our dead.

Crocodile tears... on IBN blogs

Couldn't take it any more... I have vented my angst over the reportage of the gharial crisis on IBN blogs. Here's the text:

Curious how the stuff of Animal Planet becomes a mainstream media issue and everyone in the animal kingdom a spokesperson for it.

First, it was the tiger - when the Sariska poaching incident came up, our friends in the media announced doomsday for the big cat. Sorry, even before that it was the elephant - Veerappan and his ivory oligarchy won Jumbo a number of page-one anchors.

And then we forgot about them.

Now, because tigers are so last year and elephants scarcely a blip on the radar, media melancholia has shifted to the knob-nosed, fish-eating crocodilian we know as the Gharial.

Read the full post here

The Gharial and the TV reporter

The more I read about the gharial episode in the Indian media, the more I am disgusted with the petty politicking that has driven me away from a career in that industry. And just for that, I am grateful. So it was refreshing to read Janaki Lenin's opinion piece in Tehelka and her blog on the media coverage of the issue on Wildlife Almanac. I saw some ridiculous coverage on the websites of NDTV and CNN-IBN (where one journalist has posted an idiotic blog) - and they all try to skirt the issue and fabricate connections that are irrelevant, irresponsible and dangerously speculative. The principal points - that of possible pollution of the Chambal and Yamuna rivers, at whose confluence these ancient reptiles breed, and the clear evidence of disease and the urgent need for authorities and experts to work together to control it - have been swept aside. I know from friends who are wildlife researchers that the Yamuna-Chambal confluence is perhaps the last stand not just for the gharial, but for otters, many species of waterbirds and quite likely even the Gangetic Dolphin. All this lobbying could put the wrong kind of pressure on the wrong authorities who will, inevitably, blunder with their decisions. And so, instead of investigating the issue and finding a timely and scientific solution to it, we will see the activism over this issue again deteriorate into the sad charade of appeasing vote-banks. And what of the gharial? Well, time will tell. Postscript: Some nut has stolen my copy of Tehelka from my postbox. I hope he/she/it develops a decent opinion on the Gharial crisis.