Kindness in the Wild: How the Pardhi Tribe of MP Is Saving the Tigers They Once Hunted

Deep in the forests of Madhya Pradesh’s Panna lies a community with a superpower. They can summon animals. All it takes is hand whistles chiselled out of wood and a deep understanding of the wild. 

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Within moments of hearing a call they deem familiar, tigers, leopards, wolves, hyenas, sloth bear, sambar deer, chital (spotted deer), chousingha (four-horned antelope), blue bull, chinkaras(Indian gazelle), white necked storks, paradise flycatchers, among others, appear on the scene. They are creatures of habit. So were their summoners, the people of the Pardhi community. 

But a crash in the population of the animals here, specifically the tiger, coaxed them into a moral reckoning. With their skills once geared to lure animals to entrap them, the goalposts shifted. Now, the only reason they’d call upon the wild would be so they can be appreciated.  

From hunters to conservationists, the Pardhi community has come a long way. 

Their tryst with the forest dates back five centuries. Back in the days of British rule, maharajas and British officers would hire the members to track big game like leopards and tigers. With an uptick in wildlife trade, the community enjoyed the benefits of hunting down the beasts, subsequently stripping the forests of their wild glory. 

A crisis in the forests of Panna 

In 2009, the BBC reported that Panna National Park had finally admitted to having no tigers left. 

State minister of forests at the time, Rajendra Shukla, acknowledged that the park, which in 2006 had 24 tigers, now (in 2009) had none. The claims were backed by a census. According to reports, this was the second tiger reserve in India to be condemned to this fate. 

The first was Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, where relentless poaching had wiped out the entire tiger population in the early 2000s. Eventually, Sariska became the first wildlife reserve in India to witness an ambitious tiger relocation programme in 2008, with tigers from Ranthambore National Park being translocated to Sariska. 

But Panna’s recovery wouldn’t be as easy, claimed a report prepared by the central forest ministry. Because, in Panna’s case, “warning bells were sounded regularly for the last eight years”, and it was complacency that was to blame.

A subsequent press release by the government highlighted the constitution of a Special Investigating Team (SIT), including an independent expert and members drawn from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Wildlife Institute of India, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, for investigating the causative factors for tiger extinction in Panna. Filmmaker Mandakini Malla went on to make a documentary on how the Pardhi community was among the first to be blamed. 

A return to the roots 

Batal Pardhi recalls the past in vivid detail, “There was a time we used to go deep into the forest and hunt. That's what we have done for generations. It was a way of life for us.” When award-winning photojournalist Sudharak Olwe travelled across Maharashtra to document the ways of the Pardhi people, he had a front row seat to the tactics deployed by these people to kill their targets.    

For instance, the men, out on hunting trips, would whistle, mimicking the call of the chittar(grey partridge), which would flock around them, and before the birds knew what was happening, they would be entrapped and sold. 

But today, the Pardhi people have moved to the opposite end of the spectrum, where protection of the wild supersedes capture. Many view it as a transition from old habits. But, as history reveals, it’s more like a return to roots. The Pardhi community’s roles as protectors of the forest had taken a beating around 1871, when they were branded as a ‘criminal tribe’ by the British government.

The years between 1871 and 1952 — when the Act was finally repealed and they were denotified — saw them relegated to the margins of dignity; they were forced to live in camps outside the village and discriminated against. Far removed from the modernities of urban life, even after denotification, things did not improve much. And so, they turned to hunting, to eke out a living. 

The dwindling tiger population not only put the onus on them, but also put the Pardhi community out of business. Following the 2009 fiasco, efforts were made to bring the community out of isolation and to reduce their dependency on the forest. 

In time, they softened their stance toward the animals. As Batal mentions, “We stopped big game hunting of tigers and leopards. Now we have left those ways behind and are protecting these wild animals.” 

Forging a trail in conservation

The Panna story of conservation has gone down in the archives. 

And one brave IFS officer, R Sreenivasa Murthy, is to be credited. As the director of Panna Tiger Reserve, Murthy and his team helmed the Panna Tiger Reintroduction programme. 

The approach was two-pronged. Attempts were made to repopulate the tiger reserve. Two adult female tigers (T1 & T2) from Bandhavgarh and Kanha, respectively, were brought to Panna. An adult male (T3) was brought from Pench National Park. 

“Tracking a tiger in an open area is inherently difficult. Our staff ventured in all directions, despite communication hassles; they had to stay alert day and night. Finally, we managed to trace him after spraying an extensive area with female tiger urine, to lure T3 with pheromones from the opposite sex,” says Murthy. 

The second approach was helmed by the non-profit organisation, Last Wilderness Foundation (LWF), which coaxed the Pardhi community to take ownership of the revival process and to refrain from hurting any wildlife. 

The community was relocated to the nearby village, where youth were urged to give up hunting and instead become forest guides. Young boys and girls were given an introduction to mainstream careers, while the women were allowed to deploy their traditional skills to design traditional household items, seed carvings. The idea was to rejig traditional practices with a travel focus so as to increase tourist influx.

Finally, in 2010, the first stirrings of the programme’s success were felt. T1 delivered the first litter of cubs in April 2010, followed by T2 in October 2010. By the end of 2010, there were eight new tiger cubs in Panna along with T1, T2 and T3. 

In March 2011, the forest department relocated two five-year-old orphaned tigers from Kanha to Panna, but after the consecutive deaths of several females in 2013, either naturally or from intra-species conflict, the project faced a setback, prompting the introduction of another tigress from Pench the following year.

This model became a touchstone for generations. And the Pardhi community is integral to its success. 

Meanwhile, as Batal shares, they are proud of having found their way back into the heart of nature. “We are connected to the forest. The forest has given us everything. We are now using this knowledge to keep the forest safe.” 

Sources 

'Indian park 'has no tigers': by Faisal Mohammad Ali, Published on 14 July 2009.

'Numerous significant steps to strengthen conservation of tiger: Jairam Ramesh': by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Published on 7 July 2009. 

'Decades After Denotification, Pardhi Tribe Struggles to Shrug Off 'Criminal' Tag': by Sudharak Olwe, Published on 31 August 2018.