"As we are nearing to the celebration of the big day, World Rangers Day 2017 on 31st July, I have the pleasure of sharing this personal narrative of my close friend, field companion, my guide to wilderness, a very sincere and dedicated Forester from JSWNP, with whom I set out to field for the first time setting up camera traps, and together we didn't look back. From the tropical plains of Manas in the south till the final ridges of Passamlum in the remote northern mountains, and of course not leaving a nook and cranny around our own Jowo Durshing, we explored the wilderness together in bliss. Mr. Dorji Duba is truely inspirational at least to me."
November
in Manas is bliss. The scorching heat of the summer will subside and the mighty
Manas River as it flow down swiftly, it would leave behind a chilly breeze
making the environment calm and soothing. We at Manas Park Range campus would
have a wonderful evening stroll through the woods and along the river banks,
enjoying the beauty of nature that shroud us. Manas despite its unbearable tropical weather
in the summer, is a safe haven for all kinds of wildlife including Royal Bengal
Tigers, Golden Langur, Great Hornbill, Wild Buffaloes, Guar, and several other
prey and predator species. We the foresters are savior of it. One afternoon of
November in 2006, we had special guests from Thimphu, a team from Nature
Conservation Division (NCD) accompanying a conservation scientist Dr. Yogannan
from India. I learnt that they were there to train us how to conduct camera
trapping for wildlife survey, a technique I never heard before. The news was so
exciting that out of curiosity, I couldn’t sleep the whole night that evening.
Imaginations of how camera would automatically capture pictures in the forests
and worries of how we keep the camera safe in the wild popped up in my mind.
The next morning, no sooner did I finish the breakfast than I set off to
excitedly wait for the camera trapping lessons, which were to be taught to us.
Sighting of a small boxlike structure brought amusement in me. Then, I didn’t
realize it would become my ultimate tool in wilderness.
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| Duba guiding one of our friends with the settings in camera |
The
whole day we were taught the principles of how it work, how we should handle.
For many years, I was a forester with hammer and gun as my sole weapon but I
could see new tools coming. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) was not so common
until I handled the camera traps, another important equipment for the
foresters. During my countless journeys in the wild, I have encountered
numerous animals and never saw a tiger or other cats. With the new tool, I
could see myself photographing tiger and many other wild animals which I didn’t
have a clue about their existence. The
next day early in the morning, we had practical session and that was the day I
mount the camera trap in the forest on a suitably selected trail for the first
time. It was just a beginning.
 |
| At Tsokar Tsho at 4300 masl, way to Pssamlum, Bhutan-China Border |
My fate compelled me to join Bhutan Forestry
Institute in Taba back in the spring of 1999, having strived hard to complete
by 10th standard all on my own. It was fateful because despite having a will to
study further, every single dream of mine was shattered when my parents
divorced without any mercy to me and my younger brother. Then, my objective of
joining BFI was to get a job as forest guard to sustain my living and help my
brother because that was one gateway that required the least qualification. BFI
made me a Forester but I didn’t dream I would become a camera trapper or camera
trap specialists with the leading national conservationists and tiger
biologists.
Exactly a month later, Dr. Sonam Wangyal Wang
from NCD visited us with a different set of cameras and taught us his way of
setting up the camera traps. Besides my usual patrolling works, I embraced that
new adventure of going into wilderness with camera traps. I am quite fortunate
that such camera trapping exercises came one after another and always had a
place for me. In 2008, I joined the camera trapping expedition of Dr. Tshering
Tempa and I saw myself more advancing with the camera trapping techniques. However,
camera traps have also evolved from simpler Cuddeback and higher resolution Reconyx
cameras. Days during the installation of
camera traps are so challenging but when I see the results, I get more
motivation to work harder.
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| Somewhere in the wilderness of WCNP, Duba gaze over the lowlying tiger habitats. |
During
my early career life, I was least bothered about the diversity of life in
forests, their habitats and habits. I was only concerned with hammering and
doing patrolling works, which became monotonous. It was the new camera trapping
adventure that injected more curiosity in me into the secrets of nature’s
beauty. I studied the animal signs and evidences, I studied the diversity of
plant lives, and I photographed birds and butterflies. I saw myself growing
more passionate towards nature and I realized that these little efforts of mine
were having a bigger impact for conservation.
In
the summer of 2009, RMNP hosted a very big crew of wildlife enthusiasts from
BBC Natural History Unit. RMNP was required to deploy some foresters having
wildlife and camera trapping knowledge with the visiting team. My boss have
then already recognized me was asked to accompany the team. I was more than
lucky because the team comprised of experts in every field and they were with
many sophisticated camera equipment, as they were making a documentary of
biodiversity with special focus on tigers, which later they produced the
renowned documentary, the “Lost Land of the Tiger”.
 |
| Duba, in one of his many attempts to submit Black Mountain top while conducting surveys. (A post on his journey to the Black Mountain coming soon.) |
In
2011, I was transferred from RMNP to Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park
(JSWNP). I once thought that my adventures would be coming to an end, as JSWNP
have more human settlements and I would be busy marking the trees and
patrolling the forests. However, luck has it that JSWNP was yet to implement
their first ever WWF funded project, in which many wildlife surveys using camera
traps were a component. I was initially placed at Khebethang Centre in
Phobjikha but my then Park Manager, Mr. Kelzang Wangchuk asked me to come to
the park head office in Tshangkha. While In Tsangkha, I was assigned with the
lead role to conduct the entire camera trapping works of the project. In
September 2012 I completed the Mammal Survey and recorded the presence of 22
mammals. In 2013, I completed the camera tapping works Biological Corridors
that connect JSWNP with Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP) and Wangchuck
Centennial National Park (WCNP). While I was busy with these surveys, Dr.
Tshering Tempa (then Ph.D student) approached JSWNP for his Tiger-prey dynamics
study. However, we also had to complete the Tiger Survey in JSWNP so together
with UWICE team I along with my friends from JSWNP have set up and monitored
over 60 camera traps stations from April 2013 till June 2015. By then we have
recorded the presence of 12 individual tigers in JSWNP, tigers going as high as
4200 masl, gaurs approaching nearer to Black mountain at elevation of 4180
masl, 7 species of wild felids and a new record of 39 mammal species, excluding
the bats and small mammals. It was also in JSWNP that I had the privilege of
attending more training on camera trapping and data management. I also availed
my first study tour abroad, i.e Bangkok in 2012, after serving for 13 years.
Yet
before I was done with the works in JSWNP, the much awaited National Tiger
Survey was planned. I along with two friends from JSWNP was nominated for the
National Tiger Survey in January 2014. By then I saw myself more in forests
than at home, sometimes stretching over a month. As a part of National Tiger
Survey Team, I was assigned to complete the most challenging sites where there
are not many friends who handled camera trapping. The work was huge for me even then I managed
to cover the areas of Nanglam,
Shingkhar, Loweri, Jomotshangkha, Martshala and Sonamthang under
Samdrupjongkhar Division, Dagala under Tshirang Division, Dangdung, Chala,
Simphu and Segtang under Bumthang Division where I could contribute the Tiger
not less than anyone. Meanwhile UWICE has called two of us from JSWNP for
setting up special camera traps in mountains of WCNP in June 2015. I spent
around 26 days in the mountains installing over 40 cameras to the places which
were never explored by people. We retrieved the cameras after three months in
September 2015. I learnt how we should set up cameras in different ecological
conditions. At times, I was so worried about
the functionality of my cameras because my camera traps were running in many
different places at a same time. However, as the department published the
National Tiger Survey Report 2015, I was so happy to see many tiger which my
camera traps have captured.
 |
| An illusive alpine cat caught in Dubas camera trap. |
Over
11 years, I had explored many secret corners of the country and captured
thousands of wildlife images, which is in one way a pride for me. To capture a
Tiger is not as easy as we think; we are smart and cameras are smarter but
Tiger are smartest. If we need good tiger picture, it is necessary to explore
the area and know the subject behavior like where they prefer to walk. Each
journey gives us new lesson and the more hardship we take the better the result
are on our way. Yes! I did it, satisfaction is always there. We have to do the
work with interest but not under compulsion; if we have interest it will not
take time to learn and there will be no obstacle to block our track.
 |
| The king of the jungle, image from one of Dubas camera trap in JSWNP |
Dorji Duba
Forester,
JSWNP
JSWNP
dorjiduba@gmail.com
This story featured in the June 2017 edition of the RNR Newsletter.
The pictures are bloggers collection, until otherwise referenced.
