Jim Corbett National Park

A herd of female elephants process among tall grasses along the vast floodplains of the Ramganga River in Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakand, India.

One of nature’s more interesting contradictions is that elephants move with remarkable grace despite their hefty forms. I observed this in a herd of female elephants processing slowly and silently among tall grasses along the vast floodplains of the Ramganga River in Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakand. It was dusk in Dhikala Chaur valley. The group of more than 40 pachyderms was following their matriarch, who walked alone at a considerable distance from the rest. Ahead of the matriarch and leading the parade was a single tusker, or male elephant. Adult bulls occasionally join a herd of females to mate. The only sound heard from these creatures was their grazing. The chital deer were out in number, too — a scattering of sentries across the horizon. Viewed as a whole, the animals gave the impression of a still life in slow motion. The late orange sun sinking low toward the Himalayan foothills added suspense to the quietly unfolding drama.

Chital deer are recognizable for the scattering of white spots across their bodies.

From the lushly verdant Dhikala grasslands to the densely shaded Sal tree forests, Jim Corbett National Park is rich with a variety of habitat and animals. Jim Corbett, the park’s namesake, 1875-1955, was a British hunter turned naturalist whose books such as The Man-Eaters of Kumaon and Jungle Lore memorialized the animals, villagers and forests of north India. Corbett’s work protecting Indian tigers and their habitat is legendary. The park, the oldest in the nation, honors his legacy and is the birthplace of Project Tiger, the conservation program begun in 1973 that established a blueprint of protection for Indian tigers. Corbett Park today boasts the highest density of tigers in the world and ranks among India’s most prestigious wildlife reserves.

I had come to the park in mid May to join wildlife biologist Dr. Yadvendradev Jhala, a professor at the Wildlife Institute of India who is among India’s elite tiger experts. I had observed Jhala at work among students on campus and was excited for the opportunity to observe him in the field. Unfortunately, Jhala was called away to work on another project at the eleventh hour before my arrival. But the company of his two student researchers and two visiting colleagues from the Zoological Society of London offset the disappointment of his absence.

ZSL scientists Dr. Chris Carbone and Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe were teaching doctoral students Shikha Bisht and Sudip Banerjee about a new camera trap method to use in the reserve. Camera traps take photographs of whatever moves in front of their sensors. Conservationists use the traps to learn about the state of animals, such as whether or not they are breeding, have young ones, are injured or are weak, and to estimate mammal populations. In the case of tigers, footage can also be used to identify individuals based on their stripe patterns.

ZSL scientist Dr. Chris Carbone (right) and WII doctoral student Shikha Bisht (left) discuss the new camera trap model prior to implementation in Jim Corbett National Park.

ZSL scientist Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe (right) and WII doctoral student Sudip Banerjee (left) discuss the new camera trap model prior to implementation in Jim Corbett National Park.

In traditional camera trap methods, traps are placed throughout an animal’s home range in small plotted areas based on evidence of that animal’s presence. The model introduced by Carbone and Rowcliffe measures density from randomly placed cameras, not those placed according to presence of animal signs. The premise is that animals living in a given area will randomly encounter the cameras, much like gas molecules in a compressed space will randomly collide with each other. Banerjee works with the new model to study Chital deer, and Bisht uses new and traditional methods to examine population dynamics of tigers.

WII doctoral student Sudip Banerjee and fellow students implement randomly placed camera traps in Jim Corbett National Park as part of a new model developed by cohorts at the Zoological Society of London to understand animal presence in forest.

I enjoyed learning about the projects and was compelled by conversation with the intelligent and witty ZSL scientists, whose musings about conservation research were both scientific and philosophical. And I savored my ventures into the park to experience the special nature of the place Corbett loved. The research team inspired me for being part of a lineage of conservationists using camera traps in the park, beginning with the work of Fredrick Walter Champion, 1893-1970. A friend of Corbett's and a forester with the Imperial Forestry Service during the British Raj, Champion’s experiments in tripwire photography provided the earliest “selfies” of Indian tigers and other creatures in the forests of north India. Corbett credits Champion for persuading him to turn to the camera instead of the rifle to shoot his favorite subjects. From the click of Champion’s cameras to the click of traps today, the historical record of tigers, ungulates and other mammals photographed at Corbett will continue to evolve knowledge about animals and advance the field of conservation.