INFRASTRUCTURE & CAPACITY BUILDING
The forest department in India has been plagued by bureaucracy preventing much required funds to come in time to the field causing delay in procurement of equipment such as vehicles, motorcycles, binoculars etc which are extremely important for patrolling and enforcement. Even essential items such as clothing & camping gear are not provided in time leaving the forest guards with an extremely low morale. In such circumstances to expect commitment and effectiveness in an otherwise thankless job is extremely difficult. In fact this factor has been adjudged as one of the most important factors in the forest departments failure to manage the National Parks of India.
When Tiger Watch NGO was launched, its first task was to work on augmenting the infrastructure of the Forest Department to help them perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively. To uplift the morale of a force that had little or no motivation, it was necessary to deal with the psychological set up of the individual. To deal with these problems the following items were donated directly or were arranged for through donor agencies.

 
TRAINING PROGRAMS & WORKSHOPS
To simply provide the provide the Forest Department with equipment would be insufficient as the "man behind the machine" was also going to be vital. For this purpose a training program funded by Rhino Rescue Trust was organized. The training period was to be over a month in which experts were called to impart training on the following subjects:

Workshop on interaction with enforcement authorities such as the police and correct/effective methods of filing First Information Reports to ensure a higher rate of conviction, collection of evidence and handling of the same.

Along with the training Handbooks in the Hindi language on each of the above subjects were given to the participants. Field trips were conducted for hands on training. At the end of the program each of the participants were handed over certificates and a set of clothing. The effect was seen immediately on the morale of the force.

 
Drought Relief:
The year was 2001 and Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve faced an unprecedented water crisis. A culmination of three years of poor monsoon, the animals of Ranthambhore were left thirsting for water. Of the two major lakes that dominate the core of the park and around which roam the great Tiger amongst a host of ungulates, small ponds of water were left. Everyone wondered how this crisis was to be coped with. The forest department by themselves were, short of facilities and timely financial resources. Tiger Watch appealed to the Kolmarden Foundation, Sweden for help. An extremely quick response yielded much-desired funds through which pumps were bought to feed the many troughs of water made by the department. Old wells were cleaned and made serviceable. New tube wells were dug. Tiger Watch had helped in tiding over the crucial summer months before the monsoon brought much desired relief to the parched earth.
The map below gives the locations where the work was carried out under this project

 
REDUCTION OF MAN - ANIMAL CONFLICTS
The core of the problems faced by wildlife around the world revolves around man - animal conflicts. Under the garb of progress and industrialization, humans have reduced the green cover of the earth to dangerous levels. India the second most populated country in the world is plagued by this problem even more than most places around the world. Limited resources have led to populations living around National Parks to drastically of what is left of the country's natural treasures. In view of this it has become important to take all measures to reduce this conflict.
Tiger Watch along with various partners are participating in many schemes and the same are listed below.
 

The WWF has a cattle compensation program to combat the loss of domestic life stock to carnivores outside the boundaries of the National Park. The program is also designed to ensure that villagers do not poison such kills as a retaliatory move. Tiger Watch manages the handing over of compensation on behalf of WWF by assessing the veracity of the incident as well as the value of the animal killed by tiger or leopard.
 

Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve is a small island of dry deciduous forest surrounded by approximately 90 villages and two townships, having a population of approximately 200,000 people. The majority of this population are poor farmers whose major livelihood is animal husbandry and cultivation. These people depend on the national Park for fuel and for the purpose of grazing their cattle, putting immense pressure on the park. On the other had with the boundaries and vegetation shrinking, the wild animals venture out of the park into the fields. This conflict could only be resolved with the help of a buffer zone, in the absence of which, it became necessary for a wall to be built around the park. Tiger Watch initialized this project by giving the first donation of Rs. 100,000/- towards the implementation of the project.
 

Tiger Watch has helped in conducting (in Partnership with Britannia Ltd & Sanctuary Magazine) Village melas or fairs. These were held for three consecutive years and were targeted towards educating the local populace towards the importance of National Parks and the wildlife that live in them. Through the medium of painting, singing, drama environmental education has been imparted to children who hold in their hands the future of world's natural treasures.
 

The Moghiyas are a nomadic tribe with an age-old history. They were mercenaries that fought in the armies of the Great Rajput King Maharana Pratap of Mewar. The have been adjudged as a criminal tribe that have been extremely infamous for their role in poaching. Masters at tracking and living of the land, they have used their skills to consistently poach wildlife, the major impact being on the Tiger.
Fateh Singh (Field Director Ranthambhore NP, Retd.) had felt that the only way to turn these people around was to rehabilitate them. In fact when Tiger Watch was launched, its first project was the Moghiya Rehab program with a grant of US$ 103,000/- from NFWF. The project was targeted towards providing required facilities for this tribe to settle in one village. They would then rely on cultivation, the infrastructure (wells, schools, community hall, housing, farming implements, cattle etc) being provided by the grant received from NFWF. Under the proposed plan the land on which the Moghiyas would settle had to be provided by the government. Unfortunately the state administration and the forest department could not provide this land and we after having spent US$ 3000/- for the purpose of scouting and other miscellaneous expense, the grant was not availed of and NFWF were informed accordingly.
 
With Tiger Watch having started an extremely aggressive anti poaching drive that has led to the arrests of many poachers (details in the current anti-poaching project). It was felt that the only way to solve the problem of poachers on a long term is to rehabilitate them with an alternative means of livelihood. Keeping this in mind various projects have been launched to turn around these compulsive hunters.
It is extremely uncanny & important to note that after almost 10 years this program has once again come up and the same is being executed with a great fervor.
 

On the one hand the information provided by Tiger Watch large number of arrests have been effected. On the one side we see hardened poachers being put behind bars and on the other side the sons of these poachers are being admitted into a school/hostel started by Tiger Watch with the help of generous donors. These program has been christened the Moghiya Education program and we believe it will go a long way in tackling an otherwise hopeless situation.