Fallow land in Koppal, North Karnataka ©Meghana Sanka
Yellowing grass lines the roads, extending into the horizon, and far away a curious face appears – one blackbuck, joined by others, looks up to see why we are visiting them. Assured we mean no harm, they resume their jumping.
These grasslands often categorized as “wastelands”, are home to a wide number of species; both herbivores and carnivores. Blackbucks, striped hyenas, sloth bears, leopards, civet cats, rusty spotted cats, jungle cats, foxes and wolves thrive in this environment.
Koppal, a district in Karnataka, is home to grasslands known as Yeri, where the plains and the black cotton soil provide an excellent opportunity for agriculture. Apart from the black soil, Koppal has another unique landscape, of red soil, called Masari by the locals. Masari is dotted with rocky outcrops and these are used as hideouts and dens by most of the carnivores. The river Tungabhadra that flows in the South, alongside the remains of the Vijayanagara empire, is home to otters and crocodiles.
Despite Koppal district in Karnataka not having a national park or sanctuary, it has diverse landscapes and is home to some of the most endangered and elusive wildlife species of India.
Camera-trap image of a Hyena ©Deccan Conservation Foundation and Karnataka Forest Department
Shepherding and farming are the main occupations of the people of the land. Nomadic pastoralists have been grazing these lands for centuries, following a rotational grazing system that takes advantage of the seasonally available resources.
Farming happens in both, the Yeri and the Masari landscapes. Due to the arid landscape and the soaring temperatures, the soil is rested in the summers and agriculture is generally practised in these months.
The land use pattern has been changing gradually and with the advent of better irrigation facilities and borewells, the percentage of fallow lands is gradually decreasing, resulting in blackbucks mostly being spotted in agricultural areas now. There was a time when blackbucks and chinkaras were abundant in the area, but an increase in farming and unregulated poaching have made the sightings of blackbucks rare while chinkaras have completely disappeared.
The interesting thing about the landscape is that the wolves, the apex predators of the area are not just dependant on the wild herbivores but also feed on the sheep and goats. One may think that carnivores hunt sheep and goats when there is a dearth of natural prey, but this is surely not the case with wolves. They have been taking sheep and goats from centuries, even when there was abundant prey and Koppal is not exception.
Camera-trap image of a leopard ©Deccan Conservation Foundation and Karnataka Forest Department
While every shepherd loses a few sheep a year to the wolves, some of them consider it as a blessing and believe this helps their herd grow, while others quote the wolves as “Saudar maama”, meaning maternal uncle. It is interesting to know that some people still exhibit a culture of tolerance towards the animal and are hence able to co-exist.
Coming to the rocky outcrops, about 80% of them are classified as reserve forest, and hence have been protected and not subjected to quarrying or the carnivores would have entirely disappeared from this region.
“Since people and animals share space with each other, and wildlife feeds on agricultural produce and livestock, declaring it a protected area may create a conflict situation since the animals are going to enter the human-use areas in this prey depleted landscape,” says Iravatee Majgaonkar, scientist at WCS India who is collaborating with Deccan Conservation Foundation, and researching on the wolves in the area for the past one and half year. She adds, “If we want to conserve these shared spaces, providing an incentive to the people here to protect and conserve the wildlife would ideally be the first step. This requires novel techniques and schemes which unfortunately make a weak case in the face of economic development.The second thing that needs to be taken care of is the poaching and hunting of blackbucks. With no regulation in place, the blackbucks have been gradually disappearing.”
The vast grasslands of Serengiti or the laplands of Sweden and Norway aren’t categorized as wastelands.Then why do we, in India, consider grasslands as non-productive land?
Unless an area is seen as agriculturally productive, or is densely covered by trees, the lands get categorised under ‘wastelands’. In a bid to make these lands “productive”, trees are planted, or these lands leased out to industries and institutions.
The need of the hour is to recognize the grasslands and the rocky outcrops for the ecological potential they have, the biodiversity they harbour and also understand that wildlife conservation in such places needs to be inclusive of people.
With time, the sightings of both carnivores and herbivores at Koppal have gradually reduced.Ifthe current pattern continues, there may be a day when the area will be devoid of wildlife. Koppal, along with other grassland areas, needs to be brought under the conservation lens soon but with utmost care by not losing sight of people’s rights.