Theg Made a DiFFereneo

Mr. R. G. Soni
lndianForestServiceofficer,retiredasAddl.PccF,MadhyaPradesh
reserve by an independent
Pench Tiger Reserve was found to be the best tiger
2008' ln its early years,
evaluation of the prestigious wildlife lnstitute of lndia in
1500 annually which
howeveL visitors to Pench numbered around less than
in the year 2008-2009' The
increased to 64,000, with more than 5,000 foreigners
Rs. 1.12 crores in 2008-09'
revenue from just Rs.67 ,4OO/- in 2001 galloped to
rl:i:jm#r#;i::,:r,i:.ffi
ffi5i
howevEr, didn't happen magically, overnight'
This transformation"'-iid conversion from zero to hero,
efforts as the chief wildlife warden & Field Directorfrom
Beginning with Mr. Ram Gopal soni's multi-pronged
fresh, innovative, common-sense and indigenous
2001 June to 2004 March, it took months of toil for his
approach to blossom to fruition.
for this 1982 batch IFS officer, when the then
with an earlier stint in Rookhad in 19g4, it was a proud momentpench.
Tiil then, no one had even heard of the
promote
Forest Minister; shri Harbans singh, serected soni to
Bandhavgarh the only exciting spots then in Madhya
existence of such a place; after all, weren't Kanha and
so much as a glance'
pradesh? ln fact, people just passed by en routetothese reserves, nevergiving Pench
tourism as there were
pench in its infancy was not known to many nor publicized as a destination for wildlife
lt was a vicious circle' Due to its low volume of tourists t'o
rvuE,uJr
Ino
ltJ private
Pl lvqLE lodges.
management were not made available, and
favoured by the state Govt. and the required funds for wirdrife
to
since it hadn't enough funds it lacked the infrastructure

l":^1'T:*::lx:t l:i

ping Bi

attract tourists.

ConflictwithvillagersWasrampant.Peoplewerenothappy
with the National Park because not only did they lose their
employment in the forest area but were also no longer

allowed to collect minor forest produce after the declaration

of the area as a National Park'
Tourism under control promotes wildlife conservation and
was
ensures livelihood for the local populations. But tourism
conflict between man and animal' Hence, the big
at a very low key in this tiger reserve. T.his aggravated the
was small in size and competed with the
question was how to promote tourism in this tiger reserve which
pench when one courd easiry go to Kanha and even
famous Kanha Tiger Reserve nearby. why wourd one visit
get better tiger sighting there?
their methods of promotion. He realized that the first
soni took up the challenge and went to Kanha to study
park which in this case was Nobel Laureate, Rudyard Kipling's, "The
thing to do was to create a USp for the
that this, and not Kanha, was the actual land of
Jungre Book,, (written in 1g95 in the USA), and to emphasise
,,The Jungle Book" is well read in western countries and is very popular among children as a story
Mowgli.
serial, suddenly popularized Kipling's book and
book of wildlife. By a stroke of good luck, the TV animation
Prerna singh Bindra, wrote an article on Pench
the character, Mowgli. Around then, while wildlifer-journalist,
in lndia Today, in ZOO2,TV Channel Aaj Tak' spoke about the
Park and popularized it.

After careful understanding of the problems, soni introduced

most
a better water management system which is one of the
essential elements in the conservation of any habitat, human
or wildlife. Earlier, when water dried out around December,

hand-pumpswereusedandtankersfilledupconcretesaucers
on the road-sides. Most of the water dried up by December,
and the residualwater was too hotto quench the thirst'

Soni, with his expertise in water management, stopped the use of the hand-pumps, tankers and saucers and
introduced an innovative technique often used in villages. i.e. the sinking of hundreds of jhirias at appropriate
well-distributed places. These are small shallow wells 4-6 feet deep surrounded on three sides by a stone wall
a bout 3 feet in height, much liked by the anima ls as the water remained cool throughout the year.
Soni also created 25 talavs (ponds) at every 5 km so that the animals would
check-dams near the talavs where the tigers mostly littered.
The herbivores came there to drink and the sambars loved to
wallow. Sonifurther constructed Nala bandhan so that water
got impounded at different places, to be used by wildlife for
longer periods.

He creatdd

smallearthen

Soni constructed 2 dykes (small dams... the best example of

water management in PTR), with black cotton soil in gunnybags piled up from the bottom to the top of the Nala. Here, a
lot of area is submerged in monsoon and then the water

retreats slowly into the river leaving a large blank area as open ground. But, the Nala thus closed retained
water in the catchment of the Nala and it did not drain out into the river after the submergence. Becausrir of
the dykes the water reached the tree-line which meant that the animals no longer needed to go as far as the
river; the water came to them. With the humus from the hill-sides getting into the water, vegetation grew in
the wateL attracting, especially, the vegetarian water-birds.
Soni also did staggered contour trenching on small hillocks for water to percolate downwards. This ensured
impounding of most of the rain water so that the water levels in those areas of the park rose.
Grazing was another problem which aggravated the man-animal conflict and animosity in the villagers for the
Forest Department (FD). Soni got erected a 40 km. game-proof wpll of stones, about 6 feet high; in some
places this has been raised by another 2 feet. Due to this wall the village cattle no longer entered the Park to
graze and ruin the habitat and the menace of crop-raiding of
the village crops by animals from the forest also stopped.
Talavs were created on the village side of these walls for their

livestock and pastures came up along the watersides. lnside

the forest, the habitat improved greatly due to the absence of
domestic cattle so that while in the Chhindwara side earlier
there were no animals, Gaurs and Chital now began
freq uenting the forest there.

It took months of efforts with the villagers convincing,

cajoling, and persuading them to agree to his methods in all areas. ln short, Soni built up not just a wall but
bridged the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the villagers and the FD. With generdlly no conflict, things
looked up. Absenteeism among the workers due to Malaria also reduced as Soni administered Kalmegh, the
extract of which plant is a preventive for Malaria. The villagers were glad to be rid of the scourge of Malaria
and the FD and its workers benefitted too.

t
(

it

provides large-scale employment

opportunities to the surrounding villagers, and in a democratic set-up this is important to draw the attention
of the Govt. and policy-makers. He went to private resorts and checked their visitors' books fdr comments
whichcouldhelptobringinimprovement. Hegotresthouses constructedintheKarmajhariareafortourists

Soni realised that tourism helps wildlife conservation because

where just one Forest Rest House existed. Private lodges also came up as tourism was being encouraged.
Soni then promoted Pench as a new destination in Delhi among 40 big companies of tour-operators. The BBCmade film on PTR in 2OO7-8, "Spy in the Jungle" has popularized Pench.even more. With the influx of tourism,

man and animal conflict reduced to a minimum. Having got employment, the people from the surrounding
villageswho were hostile to the Parkturned into saviours of the Park.
Soni's work is exemplary in transforming this Park into the best destination for wildlife tourism so that now
Pench is internationally recognised. flis work could be replicated elsewhert \U9slute Mr. Soni!

Note:We shall continueto highlight contributions of many others in developing

PTR.