Fateh Singh Rathore
Encyclopedia
Fateh Singh Rathore is India
's best known tiger
conservationist. Fateh Singh joined the Indian Forest Service
in 1960 and was part of the first Project Tiger
team. He was widely acknowledged as the tiger guru for his legendary knowledge of the big cat. He worked over 50 years in wildlife conservation
. Rathore was noted for his pioneering relocation of villages from inside the Ranthambhore National Park in 1973-75. Largely because of Mr. Rathore, “Ranthambhore became the place which brought the tiger to the consciousness of people the world over.”
of Rajasthan
. He was the eldest son in a family of 6 boys and 5 girls. His grandfather Laxman Singh Rathore was a Subedar
in the army. Rathore’s father, Sagat Singh, was the eldest son of Laxman Singh. He was a police officer and managed the family’s land and property in their village near Jodhpur
.
His mother loved him very dearly, and was a very bold lady, protecting him from his grandfather’s anger when he was mischievous. She died in February 2010.
Rathore’s uncles, one in the army, and the other a lawyer, helped bring him up. He was sent away to a boarding school
, and later stayed with an uncle while a college student. He was not interested in his studies, preferring to take part in dramas etc. and have fun. His uncle wanted him to be a lawyer
, but his heart was not in it. Rathore graduated from the Rajputana University
in 1960. After working as a store clerk and selling coal, Rathore was offered a job as a park ranger by an uncle who had become deputy minister of forests in Rajasthan.
in January, 1961. The first tiger he ever saw was one shot by the Duke: “I was not in love with the tiger at the time. We were very happy that we succeeded,” he recalled.
He loved the forest service, and grew very interested in conservation. He was posted as a game warden at Sariska when there were still tigers there. He worked at Mount Abu Game Reserve
between 1963 and 1970. Rathore was posted in 1971 as game warden in Ranthambhore. The area of RNP, though degraded, still existed as a forest because it was the game reserve
of the royal family of Jaipur. He was sent to the Wildlife Institute of India
for training, in the first batch of forest officers to be trained there in 1969. While there he showed a greater aptitude for field work and was not too interested in theory. He fared well there and his guru, S. R. Choudhury, recognized his potential.
(PT) was started in 1973 at the instance of Indira Gandhi
, who was very concerned about the fact that the number of wild tigers was reducing because of hunting
. Hunting was banned from then on, and 9 reserves were selected under PT. Ranthambhore was one of them. Rathore was sent there as the Assistant Field Director, but was given a free hand by his senior.
At that time, the area looked very different. There were wheat fields where Padam Talao now stands – there had been an artificially created lake there, which the villagers had drained for their agriculture
, and he restored the lake along with Raj Bagh and Malik Talao. 16 villages dotted the whole area, with no roads connecting them with each other. The villagers lived in extreme poverty
and deprivation, with no health care
or educational facilities. The vegetation
had all been eaten by domestic cattle. There were wild animals around, but they emerged mostly at night and were rarely seen.
Rathore went about carving roads through the area, patrolling it regularly, and realized that the villages needed to be moved out if the tigers were to have any chance of flourishing. It required a huge amount of tact and patience to convince people to leave their homes, and Rathore frequently found himself crying along with the villagers. He managed to convince a young schoolteacher about the benefits of moving to another location, making him his wife’s rakhi brother. The villagers were given a good compensation package, and finally moved to a newly established village called Kailashpuri which had a health centre and a school, and better agricultural land outside the park.
Once the villages were moved out, (1973-5), the park’s vegetation started regenerating on its own. Soon Rathore began to see the pugmarks of tigers, but they were still nocturnal. A lame buffalo
had been left behind by the villagers, and when he saw the pugmarks of a tigress and cubs in that area, he knew that she would kill the animal sooner or later. One day he found that the buffalo had been killed, so he climbed a tree and waited there. The tigress soon appeared with her cubs and started feeding. She was aware of Rathore up in the tree and snarled at him a couple of times. He was so excited that his hands shook as he took photos. Later, he had many opportunities to study this tigress whom he named Padmini after his elder daughter, and she tolerated his presence benignly.
In August 1981 Rathore was nearly killed by a group of villagers who resented being sent away from the park area because they used to collect fee
s from others for allowing their cattle to graze there. He was beaten up and left for dead with several fractures
and a head injury
, and it took several months for him to recover. Later he was given a bravery award for this. When he recovered he went back and confronted the villagers. Nothing was going to stop him from trying to save his tigers.
showed 45 tigers in the park. According to DK’s report there were just 26. He substantiated his claim with photographs taken by camera trap
s, a more foolproof method of tiger population estimation than the old method of taking plaster casts of pugmarks. The forest department not only denied this, but banned TW henceforth from carrying out any research within the park. TW set up an anti-poaching project, and with the help of the police, succeeded in arresting several poachers
and confiscating their weapons, sometimes pre-empting their raids. Poachers’ confessions were recorded on video, and a DVD was produced called “Curbing the Crisis”. The Forest Department continued to be in a state of denial and resentment.
Realising that the poachers are mainly from the Mogya tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherer
s with no other means of livelihood, TW has started a rehabilitation programme for them, involving the women in handicraft
production, and setting up a hostel where their children can be clothed, fed and educated, to give them some dignity and better prospects in future. This is strictly on condition that the men give up poaching. As this exercise depends solely on donations from well-wishers, funds are always a problem to collect, but the efforts go on.
TW has a sister organisation called the Prakrtik Society, set up by Rathore’s son Goverdhan. This organisation has set up a hospital (Ranthambhore Sevika) and the Fateh Public School for local community as part of efforts towards community conservation.
Rathore always believed in working with the people to save the tiger and in a country with billion population only this people-centric approach worked.
Rathore died of lung cancer at his home in Sawai Madhopur on 1 March 2011 at age 72. Rathore is survived by his wife, Khen; his son, Goverdhan; two daughters, Padmini and Jaya; four brothers; four sisters; and four grandchildren.
His commitment to tiger conservation was summed up in 1993: “The forest and all its creatures were the creation of the gods," he argued over the village fires, “Did not the goddess Durga
, the slayer of demons, herself ride a tiger? No man had a right to disturb that divine creation. The forest must be left to grow back.”
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
's best known tiger
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...
conservationist. Fateh Singh joined the Indian Forest Service
Indian Forest Service
The Indian Forest Service is the Forestry service of India. It is one of the three All India Services of the Indian government, along with the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service; its employees are recruited by the national government but serve under the state governments or...
in 1960 and was part of the first Project Tiger
Project Tiger
Project Tiger was launched in 1972 in India. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of tigers in their natural habitats and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage for the people. The selection of areas for the reserves represented as close as possible the...
team. He was widely acknowledged as the tiger guru for his legendary knowledge of the big cat. He worked over 50 years in wildlife conservation
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife conservation is the preservation, protection, or restoration of wildlife and their environment, especially in relation to endangered and vulnerable species. All living non-domesticated animals, even if bred, hatched or born in captivity, are considered wild animals. Wildlife represents all...
. Rathore was noted for his pioneering relocation of villages from inside the Ranthambhore National Park in 1973-75. Largely because of Mr. Rathore, “Ranthambhore became the place which brought the tiger to the consciousness of people the world over.”
Early life
Fateh Singh Rathore was born in Choradia village in Jodhpur districtJodhpur district
Jodhpur District is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. The city of Jodhpur is the administrative headquarters of the district.As of 2011 it is the second most populous district of Rajasthan , after Jaipur.-History:...
of Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. He was the eldest son in a family of 6 boys and 5 girls. His grandfather Laxman Singh Rathore was a Subedar
Subedar
Subedar is a historical rank in the Indian Army, ranking below British commissioned officers and above non-commissioned officers. The rank was otherwise equivalent to a British lieutenant and was introduced in the East India Company's presidency armies, to make it easier for British officers to...
in the army. Rathore’s father, Sagat Singh, was the eldest son of Laxman Singh. He was a police officer and managed the family’s land and property in their village near Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
.
His mother loved him very dearly, and was a very bold lady, protecting him from his grandfather’s anger when he was mischievous. She died in February 2010.
Rathore’s uncles, one in the army, and the other a lawyer, helped bring him up. He was sent away to a boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, and later stayed with an uncle while a college student. He was not interested in his studies, preferring to take part in dramas etc. and have fun. His uncle wanted him to be a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, but his heart was not in it. Rathore graduated from the Rajputana University
University of Rajasthan
University of Rajasthan is the oldest university in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It was set up on 8 January 1947 as the University of Rajputana and was given its current name in 1956.- Introduction :...
in 1960. After working as a store clerk and selling coal, Rathore was offered a job as a park ranger by an uncle who had become deputy minister of forests in Rajasthan.
Conservation work
Rathore joined the Rajasthan Forest Service on the advice of his uncle. One of his first jobs was organising tiger hunts in the area which later became Ranthambhore National Park (RNP) during a visit by the Queen Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of EdinburghDuke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
in January, 1961. The first tiger he ever saw was one shot by the Duke: “I was not in love with the tiger at the time. We were very happy that we succeeded,” he recalled.
He loved the forest service, and grew very interested in conservation. He was posted as a game warden at Sariska when there were still tigers there. He worked at Mount Abu Game Reserve
Mount Abu Wildlife Sanctuary
Mount Abu Wildlife Sanctuary is located in one of the oldest mountain ranges of India, the Aravalli range. It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1960.-Geography:It spreads out into a plateau which is about 19 km in length and 6 km in breadth...
between 1963 and 1970. Rathore was posted in 1971 as game warden in Ranthambhore. The area of RNP, though degraded, still existed as a forest because it was the game reserve
Game reserve
A game reserve is an area of land set aside for maintenance of wildlife for tourism or hunting purposes. Many game reserves are located in Africa. Most are open to the public, and tourists commonly take sightseeing safaris or hunt wild game....
of the royal family of Jaipur. He was sent to the Wildlife Institute of India
Wildlife Institute of India
The Wildlife Institute of India is a autonomous institution under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.WII carries out wildlife research in areas of study like Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Wildlife Policy, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Forensics, Spatial Modeling,...
for training, in the first batch of forest officers to be trained there in 1969. While there he showed a greater aptitude for field work and was not too interested in theory. He fared well there and his guru, S. R. Choudhury, recognized his potential.
"Project Tiger"
Project TigerProject Tiger
Project Tiger was launched in 1972 in India. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of tigers in their natural habitats and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage for the people. The selection of areas for the reserves represented as close as possible the...
(PT) was started in 1973 at the instance of Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
, who was very concerned about the fact that the number of wild tigers was reducing because of hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
. Hunting was banned from then on, and 9 reserves were selected under PT. Ranthambhore was one of them. Rathore was sent there as the Assistant Field Director, but was given a free hand by his senior.
At that time, the area looked very different. There were wheat fields where Padam Talao now stands – there had been an artificially created lake there, which the villagers had drained for their agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, and he restored the lake along with Raj Bagh and Malik Talao. 16 villages dotted the whole area, with no roads connecting them with each other. The villagers lived in extreme poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
and deprivation, with no health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
or educational facilities. The vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
had all been eaten by domestic cattle. There were wild animals around, but they emerged mostly at night and were rarely seen.
Rathore went about carving roads through the area, patrolling it regularly, and realized that the villages needed to be moved out if the tigers were to have any chance of flourishing. It required a huge amount of tact and patience to convince people to leave their homes, and Rathore frequently found himself crying along with the villagers. He managed to convince a young schoolteacher about the benefits of moving to another location, making him his wife’s rakhi brother. The villagers were given a good compensation package, and finally moved to a newly established village called Kailashpuri which had a health centre and a school, and better agricultural land outside the park.
Once the villages were moved out, (1973-5), the park’s vegetation started regenerating on its own. Soon Rathore began to see the pugmarks of tigers, but they were still nocturnal. A lame buffalo
Water Buffalo
The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, northern Africa, and elsewhere....
had been left behind by the villagers, and when he saw the pugmarks of a tigress and cubs in that area, he knew that she would kill the animal sooner or later. One day he found that the buffalo had been killed, so he climbed a tree and waited there. The tigress soon appeared with her cubs and started feeding. She was aware of Rathore up in the tree and snarled at him a couple of times. He was so excited that his hands shook as he took photos. Later, he had many opportunities to study this tigress whom he named Padmini after his elder daughter, and she tolerated his presence benignly.
In August 1981 Rathore was nearly killed by a group of villagers who resented being sent away from the park area because they used to collect fee
Fee
A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup.Traditionally, professionals in Great Britain received a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and would often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account...
s from others for allowing their cattle to graze there. He was beaten up and left for dead with several fractures
Bone fracture
A bone fracture is a medical condition in which there is a break in the continuity of the bone...
and a head injury
Head injury
Head injury refers to trauma of the head. This may or may not include injury to the brain. However, the terms traumatic brain injury and head injury are often used interchangeably in medical literature....
, and it took several months for him to recover. Later he was given a bravery award for this. When he recovered he went back and confronted the villagers. Nothing was going to stop him from trying to save his tigers.
Tiger Watch
In the 1990s a group of friends got together to form an NGO called Tiger Watch (TW), of which Rathore was made the Vice-Chairman. At first the Rajasthan Forest Department allowed TW to carry out research in the park. In 2003 a young wildlife biologist called Dharmendra Khandal (DK) was selected by TW to carry out research. In 2004 DK produced a report which contradicted the Forest Department’s claim that the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
showed 45 tigers in the park. According to DK’s report there were just 26. He substantiated his claim with photographs taken by camera trap
Camera trap
A camera trap is a remotely activated camera that is equipped with a motion sensor or an infrared sensor, or uses a light beam as a trigger. Camera trapping is a method for capturing wild animals on film when researchers are not present, and has been used in ecological research for decades...
s, a more foolproof method of tiger population estimation than the old method of taking plaster casts of pugmarks. The forest department not only denied this, but banned TW henceforth from carrying out any research within the park. TW set up an anti-poaching project, and with the help of the police, succeeded in arresting several poachers
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
and confiscating their weapons, sometimes pre-empting their raids. Poachers’ confessions were recorded on video, and a DVD was produced called “Curbing the Crisis”. The Forest Department continued to be in a state of denial and resentment.
Realising that the poachers are mainly from the Mogya tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s with no other means of livelihood, TW has started a rehabilitation programme for them, involving the women in handicraft
Handicraft
Handicraft, more precisely expressed as artisanic handicraft, sometimes also called artisanry, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It is a traditional main sector of craft. Usually the term is applied to traditional means...
production, and setting up a hostel where their children can be clothed, fed and educated, to give them some dignity and better prospects in future. This is strictly on condition that the men give up poaching. As this exercise depends solely on donations from well-wishers, funds are always a problem to collect, but the efforts go on.
TW has a sister organisation called the Prakrtik Society, set up by Rathore’s son Goverdhan. This organisation has set up a hospital (Ranthambhore Sevika) and the Fateh Public School for local community as part of efforts towards community conservation.
Rathore always believed in working with the people to save the tiger and in a country with billion population only this people-centric approach worked.
Rathore died of lung cancer at his home in Sawai Madhopur on 1 March 2011 at age 72. Rathore is survived by his wife, Khen; his son, Goverdhan; two daughters, Padmini and Jaya; four brothers; four sisters; and four grandchildren.
His commitment to tiger conservation was summed up in 1993: “The forest and all its creatures were the creation of the gods," he argued over the village fires, “Did not the goddess Durga
Durga
For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...
, the slayer of demons, herself ride a tiger? No man had a right to disturb that divine creation. The forest must be left to grow back.”
Honours and awards
Rathore received several awards and honors in recognition of his tiger conservation work.- 1982 - Fred M. Packard International Parks Merit Award by the IUCN Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas in recognition of outstanding service in furthering the conservation objective of protected areas. Given by the Duke of EdinburghDuke of EdinburghThe Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
. - 1983 - International Valour Award for bravery in conservation.
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Award by Shri I.K. Gujral, Former Prime Minister of India for life time achievement in Tiger Conservation. - 1999 - Honorary Wildlife Warden of Ranthambhore National Park
- 2011 - World Wildlife Fund lifetime achievement award
Publications
Picture and articles by FSR about wild tigers in Ranthambhore have been published in several books and periodicals including:- With Tigers in the Wild (Vikash Publications)
- Tiger – Portrait of a predator (Collines Publications)
- Tiger – Secret Life (Alm Tree)
- Tiger’s Destiny - Valmik Thapar; Fateh Singh Rathore; Mahipal Singh, London : Kyle Cathie, 1994, 1992.
- Wild Tigers of Ranthambhore - Valmik Thapar; Fateh Singh Rathore, Oxford Usa Trade, 2006