Tigers: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
In brief: Tiger reserves, state-wise
From the archives of India Today , May 28, 2009
Ambreesh Mishra with Mihir Srivastava
The elegantly-worded and detailed website of the Madhya Pradesh Government’s Forest Department has but one missing element—the number of tigers to be found in its numerous national parks, sanctuaries and reserves. Odd, since Madhya Pradesh is considered India’s tiger country. Not odd at all though, if you take into account its dismal recent conservation record—and the unfortunate propensity of authorites to seek refuge in consistent, unyielding denial. The brutal truth, however, goes nowhere, even while the opposite happens to the state’s tigers. Four years ago, Sariska National Park in Rajasthan became the metaphor for the decimation of India’s national animal. The nightmare has now shifted location to Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) sent by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to probe reports of the disappearance of tigers from Panna confirmed early this month that there weren’t any male tigers left in the once-thriving tiger reserve. In a belated face-saving move, the state Government last week transferred directors of three national parks, including L.K. Chaudhary of Panna. The directors of Bandhavgarh and Kanha parks have also been transferred. It seems a cosmetic exercise though, as Chaudhary was posted only in August 2008. According to the Central SIT, the park was already devoid of the big cats by that time. The 2002 tiger census reported that Panna had 20 tigresses, 14 tigers and a cub. In 2004, a CBI inquiry confirmed that all tigers in Panna were dead even as forest officials maintained that the striped cats were very much alive. In April 2004, Belinda Wright, head of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, filed a writ petition with the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court. She highlighted the alarming loss of tiger population in the park due to poaching, extensive burning and quarrying. After the Sariska tragedy hit the headlines, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department had claimed in December 2005 that according to their last count in March that year, there still were 34 tigers in the park. P.K. Sen, the SIT’s chief, however, suspects that tigers may have vanished from Panna altogether by the end of 2008. In March 2009, two tigresses were transported to Panna from Bandhavgarh and Kanha parks after being tranquilised. Wildlife officials were hoping to find mates for the lone surviving tiger in the reserve. Their drive to promote breeding in Panna was futile once it became clear that the ‘lone surviving’ tiger in Panna’s wilderness had not survived the cull. Late in April, a SIT team made up of S.P. Yadav, Joint Director of NTCA, and Qamar Qureshi, senior scientist of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, held extensive public hearings in villages and dwellings around Panna National Park. The denial by locals about tiger sightings flew in the face of the claims by authorities about the presence of the lone male tiger in Panna. The 2002 census, based on pug mark identification, stated that there were three tigresses for every 100 sq km in Panna. Then in 2006, a census revealed there were three tigers for each tigress, an alarming reverse, technically impossible within such a short time. In May that year, locals reported being unable to sight even one striped cat. All the time, forest officials claimed otherwise. In 2006, wildlife conservationist Raghunandan Singh Chundawat had warned the Government about the dwindling tiger population in Panna. He was shouted down, with the Government producing its own census figure and claiming that Chundawat was raising the bogey of missing tigers only because he had been slapped with a hefty fine by the Forest Department for the use of an elephant. The animal, the Government said, had been sought for scientific research but was used to shoot a commercial documentary instead. It is now clear that in Chundawat’s case, Madhya Pradesh wildlife authorities, in a desperate bid to cover up their own sins, were merely shooting the messenger. It worked for four years but the shocking neglect and apathy have finally caught up with the state’s Forest Department. Early this year, a Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) team found signs of tiger habitation in Panna but failed to sight the big cat. Their experience confirmed the version of local tour operators that tiger sightings had dwindled alarmingly. In March, experts from WII,who were camping in Panna to carry out a census, tentatively confirmed the worst fears of conservationists—at the most only one tiger was left there. The decision to relocate tigresses from Bandhavgarh and Kanha to Panna was then made, a tacit admission by the department that the big cat had been run out or hunted down from Panna’s forests. A local now says that one of the tigresses brought in to the reserve was already pregnant. This, he says, was a deception devised by forest officials to allow them to claim that there was a male tiger in Panna, when, in his estimation, the last tiger disappeared from Panna in 2008. The reason behind their disappearance was most probably unchecked poaching. If the tigers had left the habitat due to an imbalance in the natural cycle, relocated tigers would leave too. Even as the NTCA formed the SIT to investigate the Panna episode, the MOEF wrote to the Madhya Pradesh Government, suggesting that a committee be formed to probe the tiger disappearances from Panna. Meanwhile, the state Government is targeting Sen for allowing the news of the purge of Panna into the public domain. Rather than introspect on his department’s negligence, Additional Chief Secretary, Forests, Prashant Mehta, has written to the Centre, complaining that the SIT shouldn’t have made such disclosures publicly. The messenger has already been shot. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, created at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by amending the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, has seemingly failed to rein in poaching and related offences. A year after it was founded on June 6, 2007, the bureau is still grappling with manpower issues. Against a sanctioned staff of 110, only 25 personnel have been recruited. Rina Mitra, chief of the bureau, says, “It has been a bumpy ride to integrate forest, police and customs officials to combat wildlife crimes.” The state Government has set up a separate probe committee for Panna, which is yet to begin investigations. This slow response reflects the establishment’s attitude to the alarming rate at which the tiger is being hunted down. The problem continues to grow: there have been six unexplained deaths in the state’s Kanha Tiger Reserve. “Kanha is showing early signs of Panna,” warns Chundawat. Tiger country is slowly but surely losing its stripes. Fading stripes
• In 2004, it was discovered that Sariska had no tigers. By 2008, all big cats were gone from Panna. • The last tiger census of 2005 put the number of tigers in Panna at 34. • A special investigative team found that officials had tried to camouflage the truth about Panna. • There have also been six unexplained tiger deaths over the past six months in Kanha.
1973: Project Tiger
India Today December 29, 2008
The Rs 230-lakh Project Tiger was a Union Government and the World Wildlife Fund joint endeavour in 1973, to check immediate threats to the national animal. “It registered a marked increase in most animal populations in the first decade” (India Today, December 1983). With 1,550 sq km under its canopy, including 15 sanctuaries and national parks, the project cordoned off a third of this land for conservation activities and demarcated the rest as a buffer area, relocating the villages around.
1999-2015: Population
2006-2014: High growth
Jan 21 2015
2,226 now: Tiger numbers grow by 30% in 4 years Camera trap and DNA sampling methods used in tiger census
Vishwa Mohan
There are more than 2,200 tigers in India's forests, the latest census reveals, indicating a sharp 30% rise in four years that'll come as a big boost to India's conservation efforts. The census, held in 2014, found evidence for 2,226 tigers, compared to 1,706 in 2010.
The southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the Western Ghats landscape recorded nearly one-third of the country's total number of big cats. Karnataka continues to have the highest number of tigers in India, itself home to 70% of the world's tiger population.The Mudumalai-BandipurNagarhole-Wayanad forest complex in Western Ghats holds the world's largest tiger population, with 570 tigers. If one compares the 2006 tiger census, when mod ern methodology was adopted for the first time, revealing a tiger population of just 1,411 -the overall increase across the country is a phenomenal 800-odd tigers in the past eight years.
Releasing the 2014 data on Tuesday , Union environment and forests minister Prakash Javadekar said, “We must be proud of our legacy . We have increased the number of tigers by over 30% from the last count (in 2010). “ A total of 3,78,118 sq km of forest area in 18 states, having tiger population, was surveyed during the census that used `double sampling' approach including ground survey and remote camera trapbased capture and recapture technique. Besides, scat DNA sampling method was also used for corroboration in many forest areas.
More than 9,730 cameras were used in the exercise, carried out by National Tiger Conservation Authority in collaboration with the state forest departments, national conservation NGOs and Wildlife Institute of India.
The exercise resulted in 1,540 individual tigers being photographed -making it the most authentic report on tiger population in the country.
The report shows that the tiger population has increased in Karnataka, Utta rakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the past four years, while it has decresed in Odisha and Jharkhand.
2004-09
The Times of India, Mar 22, 2016
Jayashree Nandi
Tigers need much more space than our protected areas or tiger reserves provide for currently. While that's true for all wildlife, a recent study published this month in Biological Conservation journal has highlighted how lack of space could be linked to a fast disappearance of tigers from certain habitats, particularly tropical dry forest areas. Sariska and Panna tiger reserves, both tropical dry forests experienced complete extinction of tigers in 2004 and 2009; the study explains what may have led to their complete disappearance. Some tigers have been re-introduced in Panna and Sariska. The study documents the space requirements of tigers in Panna tiger reserve before the extinction of tigers only to find a major mismatch in scale of their ranges and the sanctuary size, which exposes tigers to various anthropogenic threats including poaching and retaliatory killings outside the boundary. The reason for such large home ranges of tigers in tropical dry forests is still being studied, authors said but could be linked to ecological factors like prey population, water or shade. The study involved field studies between 1996 and 2005 that monitored tiger movement through radio telemetry and direct sightings in the 543 sqkm area of Panna. Annual home ranges of both male and female tigers were estimated and then overlaid on the sanctuary area boundary revealing how home ranges often breached the sanctuary boundary. According to the authors, this is the first comprehensive study of tiger home ranges in a tropical dry forest area and one of the longest studies on tiger in the sub-continent. The study documented detailed information on six radio-collared tigers over a period of nine years. While conducting the nine-year observations, the team also found some intriguing features. For instance, "Male tiger territories were not exclusive as generally believed. Instead, it was observed that females mated with several males in addition to the territorial tiger. But the role of these non-territorial males can be important but little is known about these tigers," said Raghu Singh Chundawat, lead author of the study.
The team concluded that home range of breeding or nursing tigers extended beyond the boundary of the sanctuary. In fact what happened in Panna and Sariska are a part of a larger trend, researchers warned. The largest tiger habitat in India is in tropical dry forest category. But the probability of survival of tigers in these areas is much lower than in other habitats like tropical moist forests, alluvial grasslands or mangroves. Interestingly, more than 85% of the sanctuaries located in tropical dry forests are way smaller than Panna and have either lost the tigers already or sit with high risk of tiger extinction.
Quite sad. Unfortunately, with the current environmental policies, or lack thereof, there doesn't seem to be any probability for the long term survival of tigers in India.
"The bottom line is that tigers need more space, and one may need to think out of the box, if tigers are to have a future in the already stressed landscapes," said Koustubh Sharma, co-author of the study. The study recommends that a straight forward solution to the problem will be to protect larger forest areas but that's a difficult proposition in human dominated areas. "Small patches embedded in large landscapes can be conserved as a series of stepping stones to interconnect populations," the study said.
Poaching: 2012-2014
The Times of India, May 15 2015
In 2012-14, poaching has resulted in the deaths of 74 tigers in the country. The data for poaching, including seizure of tiger organs, shows that 23 tigers, or about 31% of the total, were killed inside tiger reserves while 51 were killed outside these reserves. A state-wise analysis of the data shows that the highest number of tigers were killed in Maharashtra followed by Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, each of these states witnessing over 10 deaths in these three years Source: Ministry Of Environment, Forest And Climate Change, * including Telangana.
Predator attacks
February 19, 2015
Man-eater killed by a joint Kerala-Tamil Nadu Special Task Force in the Gudalur forests along the Nilgiris-Wayanad border after attempts to tranquilise and relocate it for eight days failed. The tiger claimed two victims. National Tiger Conservation Authority norms were allegedly overlooked.
December 29, 2014
A relocated man-eater was killed in Khanapur Taluka of Belgaum, Karnataka, by the state Anti-Naxal Force after it mauled a pregnant woman in the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in Chikkamagaluru district.
August 20, 2014
Tiger shot dead in Chichpalli range of Chandrapur, Maharashtra, by sharpshooters. Seven people had been mauled to death by tigers in six months in Pombhurna village. There was dispute over whether the right man-eater was killed.
December 6, 2013bb
Man-eater was tranquilised and caged in Bandipur, Karnataka, by veterinarians tracking it. It had claimed three lives in surrounding villages. It has been relocated to the Mysore zoo.
5. December 2, 2012
Tiger was shot dead in a coffee plantation in Moolamkavu, Wayanad, by Special Task Force officers. Its victims were a dozen cattle. Maneka Gandhi claimed that the shooting was a "cause to wind up the Wildlife Department" as the tiger was not a man-eater.
Tiger attacks
2012-15: 82 attacks
DNA India, 8 Mar 2016
82 incidents of tiger attacking human in 2012-15
Among these incidents, 28 have been reported in 2014-15, 33 in 2013-14 and 21 in 2012-13, he said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.
Javadekar said the National Tiger Conservation Authority has a multi-pronged strategy to deal with human-wildlife conflict including habitat interventions, restricting habitat interventions, material and logistical support besides others.
Based on the carrying capacity of tigers in a reserve forest, habitat interventions are restricted through an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan, he said.
In case tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, it is advised that habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spillover of wildlife, including tigers, thereby minimising man-animal conflict.
"Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted so that they are sub-optimal vis-a-vis the core tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas," he said.
Javadekar said the central government through the National Tiger Conservation Authority has operationalised and funded setting up of Electronic Eye (E-eye) surveillance in Corbett and Kaziranga Tiger Reserves along with Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
Besides observing the movement of tigers and other animals, E-eye acts as an early warning system wherein movement of poachers and intruders can be viewed before they reach the sensitive areas of tiger reserves, thereby checking any wildife crime.
It also helps in monitoring dispersal of wild animals in human habitations. This facility may be replicated in other tiger reserves also, if needed, he said.
2015 (Jan-July): Tiger deaths
The Times of India, Aug 12 2015
Neha Madaan
India loses 41 tigers in 7 mths
Poisoning by villagers, poachers' traps claiming big cats' lives
Tiger deaths persisted in the country despite the Union and state governments' efforts towards conservation. The country lost close to 41 tigers from January until August 9 this year, similar to the count in the same period in 2014, reveals data from National Tiger Conservation Authority and TRAFFIC-India, the wildlife trade monitoring network. The data revealed tigers are dying not just from natural causes, but are also being shot to death by authorities in case of man-animal conflicts.
According to the data, till August 9, 2014, Maharashtra reported three tiger deaths.Among these, one tiger was shot dead by sharp shooters of the Chandrapur police. The count of dead tigers in the state has reached five this year.
Vikas Kharge, secretary Revenue and Forest Department (Forests), told TOI that choosing actor Amitabh Bachchan as the ambassador for its tiger conservation projects is likely to have a positive outcome. “We are yet to finalize the modalities. He is a tiger lov er and his involvement in the project will have a unique appeal for the masses,“ he said.
Kharge added that incidents of tiger poaching have declined in Maharashtra due to an increase in the number of protection measures undertaken. “A special tiger protection force, comprising a team of 120 personnel, has been employed in each of the four reserves of the state. For locals' involvement in saving tigers, we have set up village eco-development committees for community participation in conservation of forest and tigers,“ he said.
States that have reported the maximum number of tiger deaths include Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
In 2014, another cause of death cited was poaching by poisoning using organophosphorous compounds. Other causes included cardio-respiratory failure and retaliatory killing by electrocution near Dhamokar at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, MP.
2016-17
The Times of India, Mar 02, 2016
Amit Bhattacharya, Vishwa Mohan & Indranil Basu
In the biggest budgetary boost for the tiger in recent years, the Centre has hiked its allocation for Project Tiger by nearly 80% for the coming fiscal year, utilising funds collected from the cess on coal, lignite and peat. The Union Budget has approved an allocation of Rs 300 crore for Project Tiger for 201617, up from Rs 168 crore the project had received in the current year. The enhanced funding will come from the `clean energy cess', which the government, in its Budget, increased from Rs 200 per tonne to Rs 400. It has also been renamed the `clean environment cess'.
The cess, to be deposited in what will now be called the national clean environment fund, will be used not only to develop renewable energy sources, but also to fund various environment protection measures, including Project Tiger, wildlife conservation, abatement of river pollution etc.
Allocations for the tiger had been slashed by 13% in the last Budget, leading to accusations by wildlife activists that the Modi government was neglecting the conservation of the striped cat.
The huge increase in funds for 2016-17, however, comes with a catch. The finance ministry has stuck to the condi tion, introduced last year, that the respective states contribute 40% of the non-recurring expenditure on tiger reserves.
As per the earlier funding pattern, the Centre provided 100% of non-recurring expenses -which includes compensation for villagers relocated from tiger habitats, equip ment for the special tiger protection force etc -while the recurring costs were shared equally by the Union government and the state where the tiger reserve is located.
“During 2015-16, many states were caught unawares by the change in funding, and crucial projects couldn't be implemented.With the enhanced funding, both the Centre's and the states' share will increase.Which means, states with tiger reserves should prepare to increase their allocations,“ a source said.
An official said Project Ti ger funds for the next fisca would also be used to host the next Asia ministerial confer ence on tiger conservation here. The three-day meet will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 12.
According to the 2014 tiger census, India has 2,226 tigers with the three southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala of the Western Ghats landscape recording nearly one-third of the coun try's big cats.
India has over the years re corded an increase in its tiger population. If one compares the 2014 figure with that re corded in 2006, the increase across the country has been phenomenal with over 800 more tigers recorded two years ago. The country had 1,411 ti gers in 2006, with 1,706 record ed four years later in 2010.
Famous tigers
The Times of India, 14 Jul, 2015
Tigers like Ranthambore's T24 have been hitting headlines of late for attacking humans. Here are famous big cats from around the country.
Machli
One of Ranthambore National Park’s most famous tigers, Machli (T16) has been the subject of a number of documentaries and films and received a clutch of awards. She’s known as the ‘Queen of Ranthambore’ and the ‘Lady of the Lakes’ and once dominated the entire jungle. A You Tube video of her battling and vanquishing a 14ft mugger has more than 5 million views. She’s now 19 years old, weak, toothless and possibly blind in one eye, and the park officials feed her to keep her alive.
Munna
Kanha Tiger Reserve’s most famous residents is a tiger called Munna, who can quite easily be identified by his stripes. The marks on his forehead seem to spell out ‘CAT’ and tiger lovers say the ‘PM’ below stands for prime male. Munna has a reputation for following safari vehicles until they pull off the track.
Bamera Male
The son of Bandhavgarh National Park’s best known tiger B2 or Sundar, who died in 2011, this dominant tiger is known only as Bamera male. The story is that he left the reserve he was born in but returned a few years later to battle his father and take it over.
Shivaaji
One of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve’s most famous big cats is the dominant male, Shivaaji. The 13-year-old tiger, known for his bulk and aggression, can usually be seen in a 50sqkm area of the southern I Kolsa range of the park.
State-wise
An increase, Uttar Pradesh
Rise in No. of tigers in Uttar Pradesh
The Times of India TNN | Jul 27, 2014
LUCKNOW: Camera traps have shown more tigers in the core area of Dudhwa tiger reserve this time. The initial estimates for two years, 2011 to 2013, have shown 72 to 80 tigers in the core area of the reserve.
Tiger census 2010-11 had counted 118 tigers in Dudhwa reserve. "The final count this time might be around 125," said PCCF (wildlife), UP, Rupak De.
The findings have been sent to the Union ministry of environment and forest for screening, said the official.
Camera-trapping exercise has been done for Kishenpur wildlife sanctuary and Dudhwa national park which form core of the reserve. Initial findings have also come for Pilibhit forest division which is now a separate reserve.
In all, 72 to 80 tigers have been counted in these areas. Once figures for Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary, North and South kheri forest division come, tiger numbers might go up to 125. The improved census technique could have resulted in more tigers getting recorded in camera.
It was an 'intensive' exercise as a pair of cameras was installed every 1.6 sq km of the core area. A pair of cameras was installed at 65 identified points in Kishenpur and at 206 identified points in Dudhwa national park.
The height at which cameras were mounted was also altered to record cubs, two-year old and less.
About a dozen new cubs have been recorded in camera.
At least 382 photographs have been downloaded from cameras installed in Kishenpur and Dudhwa national park.
Many of these photographs, said officials, could be 'repetitions' which is why the photographs would be screened. Tiger census is on since November 15 in the reserve.
UP has a major tiger population in Dudhwa tiger reserve comprising Dudhwa National Park (680 sq km), Kishenpur Sanctuary (204 sq km) and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (440 sq km); Pilibhit (720 sq km); North Kheri (350 sq km) and South Kheri (460 sq km).
Smaller tiger populations are present in Bijnor forests in west and Suhelwa (Gonda-Bahraich) and Sohagibarwa wildlife sanctuaries (Maharajganj) in east.
Tiger reserves
Tiger reserves in India: Valuation
Jan 22 2015
6 tiger reserves worth Rs 1.5L cr: Valuation study
Vishwa Mohan
In a first of its kind exercise, India has conducted economic valuation of six of its tiger reserves and placed their value at Rs 1,49,900 crore. The study has also noted that these six reserves have been generating annual monetary benefits worth Rs 7,970 crore. The six tiger reserves which were surveyed for this study are Corbett, Kanha, Kaziranga, Periyar, Ranthambore and Sundarbans.
India has 47 tiger reserves covering over 2% of the area and approximately 10% of the recorded forest area. Latest tiger census shows that India -which is home to 70% of world's tiger population -has a total of 2,226 tigers.
The valuation study, executed by Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, at the behest of the environment ministry's National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), provides quantitative and qualitative estimates of benefits accruing from tiger reserves which include economic, social and cultural services.
“The study findings indicate that the monetary value of flow benefits emanating from selected tiger reserves range from Rs 830 crore to Rs 1,760 crore annually . In terms of unit area, this translates into Rs 50,000 to Rs 190,000 per hectare per year,“ said the summary of the report released simultaneously with the tiger census by the Union environment and forests minister Prakash Javadekar.
Buxa Tiger Reserve: "No sign of tigers"
Apr 27 2015
Krishnendu Mukherjee
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientists who conducted a nationwide tiger census over four years have stated in their final report that they found no sign of tigers in the north Bengal park. “Though two tigers were identified in Buxa on the basis of scat-based DNA, our research team has found no tiger sign in the forest,“ says the report, which was recently submitted to the ministry of environment and forests According to the findings, the Buxa tiger population is “declining“ and needs special attention. The Dehradun-based research institute has also questioned the authenticity of the scat samples sent to it by the Bengal forest department.“We took the GPS coordinates of the scat samples from the state foresters and sent our research team there,“ said Y V Jhala, a senior scientist at the institute. “But the team didn't find any tiger sign in and around those areas. So, we could not authenticate the origin of the scats.“
Earlier, there were allega tions that such scat samples were collected from a wildlife rescue centre located near the tiger reserve. A cameratrap exercise, started in Buxa more than a year ago, has also failed to capture any image of tigers. The same exercise, though, has brought to light the existence of rare and elusive animals such as the clouded leopard, marbled cat and Himalayan serow in the reserve.
A separate study by WII, however, has found the movement of about nine tigers in the corridor between Buxa and Assam's Manas Tiger Reserve.
Ranthambore National Park: Rajasthan
2016: Nameless tigers are ‘numbered’
The Times of India, Jun 04 2016
Sixteen `nameless' tigers, half of them not spotted for months, in Rajasthan's Ranthambore national park have been numbered for tracking and subsequent mo nitoring. The numbers were assigned to these adult tigers, most of them at least two years old, on the basis of trap camera footage. Ranthambore was the first national park in the country that began assigning numbers to tigers on the basis of photos from cameras set up across its territory. In 2009, the numbers assigned were from T-1 to T-45. In 2013, the new number were from T-46 to T-75. Now, 16 more numbers have been added.
2016: Tiger cub boom
The Times of India, Jun 16 2016
Rachna Singh
Tourists are enjoying a baby boom at Rajasthan's Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve with only a fortnight to go before it closes. The national park remains open to visitors as per safari timings from October 1 to June 30 every year.
Wildlife lovers are elated as the area has for a long time been devoid of any tigers. While a tiger named T 5 died recently , T 17 disappeared mysteriously .Also, two tigers from this area were shifted to Sariska Tiger Reserve.
Conservationists say there should be a special emphasis on protection of the cubs as the area where they were sighted faces threat from the illegal mining lobby, grazing and the pilgrim rush at a nearby temple.
The tiger reserve has 43 adults, 25 male and 18 female, and 19 cubs, taking the total number to 62.
Orang National Park
The Times of India, Mar 02, 2016
`Mini Kaziranga' is India's 49th reserve
Assam's Orang national park, also known as `mini Kaziranga', has become the 49th tiger reserve in the country, with the state government issuing a notification to this effect. The environment ministry has given the nod for three more reserves at Ratapani (MP), Sunabeda (Odisha) and Guru Ghasidas (Chhattisgarh). The conversion of a wildlife sanctuarynational park to a tiger reserve leads to enhanced central funding for a higher level of conservation, which includes a clear demarcation of core and buffer zones in the forest.
Movement of humans more important than tigers: SC
The Times of India, Jan 21 2016
Dhananjay Mahapatra SC: Development more important than tigers
The Supreme Court said that the conservation of tigers was important but it could not be done at the cost of movement of human beings from one place to another and general economic development of the country . The court was critical of NGOs which rush to challenge development projects, in this case four-laning of the 37-km-stretch of NH-7 between Nagpur and Jabalpur passing through Pench tiger reserve.
The issue had led to a tug of war between the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, which had suo motu taken up the issue of widening of NH-7, and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which claimed to have sole jurisidiction over environ mental issues. Both passed orders that ran counter to each other, leaving the officials of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in a Catch-22 situation. If they obeyed one, they committed contempt of another.
The SC settled the conflict and said the HC would be the forum to deal with the roadwidening issue. A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi was highly critical of NGOs, including Conservation Action Forum, which had challenged the road-widening project on the ground that it would seriously impede the traditional migration routes of tigers in the reserve.
The bench said, “Tigers are important. But what happens to the movement of traffic? It is not the first time that a national highway is passing through a reserved forest. We are for protecting tigers.“
“Have you all filed any PIL against poaching? Why don't you go and work with those people working at the ground level to protect tigers from poachers? You jump to litigation whenever there is a development project. File a PIL on how to prevent poaching. Real danger to tiger is not from road traffic but poachers,“ the bench said.
Tiger deaths
2016: Jan-June
The Times of India Jun 29, 2016
Avijit Ghosh MP Fares The Worst With 19 Fatalities
At least 74 tigers died between January 1 and June 26 this year in India. Worryingly, there is also a spike in poaching-related fatalities as 2016 reaches its halfway mark, statistics collated from different parts of India by a well-known wildlife NGO shows. Among these, 14 tigers were electrocuted, poisoned or simply killed by poachers, and much of the carcass was recovered. Police and wildlife authorities also seized skins, bones, claws, skeletons, canines and paws of another 16 tigers during this period, taking the tally to 30, as per figures provided by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). It is possible that some of them might have been killed earlier but the deaths are accounted for only after the seizures.
Another 26 tigers were “found dead“, a category that includes mortality due to disease, old age or unexplained circumstances. Statistics shows the remaining 18 were victims of infighting (12), tiger-human conflict (2), road or train accidents (3) and fights with other animals (1).
In comparison, 26 tigers fell victim to poachers in the entire year of 2015, according to WPSI. Besides, there were 65 deaths due to other reasons as specified above, taking the overall tally to 91 last year.
However, tigernet.nic.in, a database on mortality of tigers and other key wildlife species across India, offers a different figure. The website puts the figure of tiger deaths so far this year at 52, with another 15 when seized body parts are taken into account. The database is a collaborative effort of the Natio nal Tiger Conservation Authority and TRAFFIC-India, a wildlife trade monitoring network. According to the national census in 2014, the number of tigers in India is 2,226 (minimum 1,945, maximum 2491).
A state-wise look at the 2016 figures indicates that the maxi mum number of deaths (19) occurred in Madhya Pradesh.Maharashtra and Uttarakhand take the second spot with nine fatalities each. Madhya Pradesh also has the highest number of recorded deaths on account of poaching: six.
WPSI records show that in the past three and a half years, tiger poaching and seizure of body parts have been reported from 15 states: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Among them, the majority of cases are from Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Wildlife experts feel intelligence-led enforcement operations are key to thwarting poaching. “We are lacking on this front. Most of the time our frontline staff in protected areas are not even aware of the modus operandi of poachers. International cooperation is necessary to break the criminal nexus and reduce the demand of end-products in China and south-east Asian countries,“ Tito Joseph of Wildlife Protection Society of India said.
Loss of habitat is another issue that ails tiger conservation.The big cat's habitat is now limited to “7% of its original range“, said conservation biologist Raghu Chundawat. “Poaching of the tiger is not the only reason for this (deaths). There are several issues and all these can be referred to as loss of the quality of tiger habitat. This can also include loss of prey , forest cover, connectivity etc,“ he added.
Maternal instincts among tigresses
The Times of India, Jun 29 2016
Vijay Pinjarkar
Wildlife experts say tigresses are caring mothers, separating from their cubs only when sure they can take care of themselves, around the age of 17-24 months. However, a popular tigress in Maharashtra's Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), courting a male for the better part of last week after deserting her three one-year-old cubs, has challenged established ideas about big cats and left experts bewildered.Her anomalous behaviour has set off feverish discussions about her possible motivation, with some experts suggesting the mating may be a mother's ploy to distract the male from attacking her cubs, a two males and one female.
Bilal Habib, a scientist with Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, said though unusual, areas with a high tiger density have been witnessing such incidents.“Maya's territory overlaps with that of four males. Mating with them is the best strategy she could have adopted to save her cubs,“ he added, “Had Maya been defiant, her cubs and she could have either been harmed or killed by the other males.“
TATR chief conservator of forests and field director G P Garad backed the view.
According to recent reports, a male tiger named Matkasur is said to have attacked one of the cubs. Naturalist Himanshu Bagde had seen the adult male trailing Maya on June 10 from a water hole. When Bagde reached Pandharpaoni, where Maya lives, Matkasur had charged at one of the cubs, which has not been seen since. Later, Maya was sighted with another male, Gabbar, at the waterhole. There, Matkasur and Gabbar had a fight. The former conceded defeat and moved to the Kosekanar area. After that, for four days, Maya was seen mating with Gabbar. “All I can say is it is evident that there is so much that we don't know about the social behaviour of tigers,“ said Shekar Dattari, a wildlife film-maker.
2016: First tiger repository
The Hindu, August 7, 2016
Kavita Upadhyay
Country gets its first tiger repository
The Dehradun-based WII has about 23,000 images of tigers. “This has to be maintained and the Tiger Cell will do that,” Dr. Mathur said, adding that “if a tiger skin is recovered at a place then a properly maintained database can be used to check where the tiger might have come from.”Project clearanceThe Tiger Cell could also help with the development-conservation debate. “When a project needs environmental clearance, our spatial data can be used to overlay the project plan on our maps and check whether the project would interfere [with wildlife habitats that must not be disturbed],” WII Director V. B. Mathur said.
“We have worked with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on tiger conservation and population estimation, and in the process we have generated a huge database,” WII Director V. B. Mathur told.
The Tiger Cell was inaugurated and will be funded by the NTCA, a statutory body under the Environment Ministry.
“The Tiger Cell will assist in population assessment of tigers, law enforcement, wildlife forensics, infrastructural development and mitigation, smart patrolling and advisory role in policy formulation,” said Y.V. Jhala, a wildlife scientist at the WII who will head the Tiger Cell.
“We have been working with the Central government for a long time but this is a formal arrangement where we are institutionalising our contribution,” Dr. Jhala said.
