The numbers are growing

The numbers are growing

On International Tiger Day (July 29), Sony BBC Earth is bringing a special line up of three shows depicting the life, habitats and peculiarities of tigers. Dhruv Singh, production consultant for the wildlife series Dynasties, talks about his experience of shooting the documentary. Liaising with the Forest Department and the local community in Bandhavgarh, he spent several days on the field filming with the production crew. The episode follows a mother tigress Raj Bhera, who is desperately trying to protect her four newborn cubs as rivals try to steal her territory and overthrow her. Singh tells us more.

What was your biggest challenge as production consultant? 
Filming wildlife is the most uncertain thing in the world, say, you were making a film on the Taj Mahal —  you wake up and you go there being pretty sure that the structure is going to be where it was. But in a wildlife film, you wake up in the morning, 3-4 am to be there at 5 am, and you don’t know whether the animal you’re going to film will be there or not. Thankfully, we had the luxury of being in the park for a long shoot, because it takes days to film tigers. 

The biggest challenge for us was to film something that is not in our control at all. There was a time when we did not see the tigress for almost three weeks. I haven’t had a more stressful time in my life! She was in a different part of her territory, and when we reached there, she went somewhere else. 

What is the most fascinating thing about mother tigers according to you? 
It is somewhere deeply rooted in our psyche that we know that tigers are far ahead of us. It’s a different matter that today we (human beings) are controlling everything. If you come down to the basics, tigers are the finest predators in the world. And mother tigers are the most caring too. To have all these things in one animal is most fascinating to me. 

What is your take on this sort of animal politics? With a younger tigress trying to overthrow her and all, how different are they from human beings?
Politics of space is most extreme when it comes to carnivores. And with tigers being the top of the food chain, it can’t be more obvious. Even humans have the same problem — space. We just have different ways of resolving it. For tigers, there are extreme results — one has to chase the other one away. Sometimes, they die fighting for days. Land politics for tigers is ultimate for their survival. They also want to have the nicest possible space to raise their own cubs. 

What is the status of the tiger as an endangered species now? 
I think one has to define the word ‘endangered’. Is it a species that is going to get wiped out from the world and we will never see it again? I hope not and I believe not. But I have concerns. I feel that the experience of seeing a tiger is more endangered than the tiger itself. 

Tell us about some interesting experiences you’ve had shooting in the park with the production crew? 
The last bit of the film was most interesting for me, personally. Raj Bhera is driven out of the park, she is in conflict and the Forest Department has to rescue her and bring her into the park. They did a brilliant job of that. It was very interesting for me because it brought to life the immediate problems tigers are facing. 

The Forest Department has done such amazing things to revive the population of tigers and numbers are growing. But when there are more tigers, they need to go out of the park to find new space, but people live there, and this is a new challenge that has to be overcome. 

What are some of the rules while shooting tigers on film? 
The animals should be kept at a safe distance. Wildlife should never be disturbed. That’s our briefing whenever we step into the jungle. We never get close to animals or interact with them. We are there to record them in their natural behaviour, peeping into their lives without disturbing them. 

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