Female Presence To Lure Runaway Tiger Back To Panna

New Delhi: A “healthy, adult male tiger” was chosen after months of deliberation from Pench tiger park to be trans located to the empty Panna tiger reserve, which lost all its big cats to poaching exactly a year ago. Now, the young male has done what was least expected — it has run 200 km away.

After several letters between the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in New Delhi, it has finally been decided that the truant should be sedated and brought back — but only after he is given evidence that there are tigresses in Panna for company.

In an unusual letter to Madhya Pradesh, the NTCA has given the state forest department the permission to sedate the tiger and bring him back to Panna, after littering the enclosure he is brought back in with the scat of tigresses — to establish mate presence and to keep him “in Panna”.

This follows several arguments between the state and Centre, with the satellite signal in the tiger’s collar failing to work, and a debate on the ethical wisdom of sedating the animal for a second time.

“The tiger should be brought back to a soft-release enclosure in Panna, and kept there for at least 10 days so he can be familiarised with Panna. Further we have specifically asked that scat of the two tigresses in Panna be kept around the enclosure that is created for the tiger, so he doesn’t leave the park,” says an NTCA official. This is the first time that such a solution is being mooted in black and white, but the problem also is a first.

After weeks of searching in tiger reserves Bandhavgarh and Kanha, a male tiger had been selected from Pench to be tranquilised and moved to Panna, which had lost all its tigers to poaching. Two tigresses have also been translocated to the reserve since then.

The male tiger, fitted with a satellite-cum-radio collar roughly worth Rs 4 lakh, was brought in in November, and ran away soon after. Walking out of the park, the four-year-old tiger has been on a long march, via Panna to Kishenpur, Rajpura, Bakswaho, Dalpatpur (close to the district border) — crossing at least two districts and 200 kilometres.

A large group from the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, including Panna Field Director Srinivas Murthy, and scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have been on its trail for two weeks.

Some members of the WII team are of the view that the tiger, which was tranquilised when it was first translocated, should not be sedated again. The ethics of sedating tigers to move them has become a burning question after a stray tigress, sedated and caged earlier this year to be taken to the Bhadra tiger reserve in Karnataka, died in the process.

Madhya Pradesh meanwhile claims that the NTCA did not respond soon enough. “We had communicated with the NTCA several times for permission to tranquilise the runaway tiger. However, we were not granted permission for several days. Further, the satellite collar stopped working. Even though it is a very expensive device, it has not been giving a signal since November 25. We have barely been able to follow the tiger through radio telemetry signals. The tiger has been moving in ravines and hilly area and tracking it has been very difficult,” says R S Negi, Chief Wildlife Warden, Madhya Pradesh.

“The ethical questions should be considered later. At this moment, it is imperative that the tiger be moved before there is any conflict with human beings. Also, it should not be allowed to cross any state borders,” says former Project Tiger director P K Sen.

MOVING STRIPES

There have been only two large-scale tiger translocation projects in India — one for the Sariska tiger reserve in Rajasthan, and one for Panna in Madhya Pradesh, both of which lost all their tigers to poaching. As per population recovery plans created by the WII, five tigers from adjoining reserves have to be brought in to each park. Three tigers, a male and two females, have been translocated to Sariska, while two tigresses and one tiger have been brought to Panna. While the male tiger moved to Sariska also showed a lot of restlessness after being moved, it is for the first time that a translocated tiger has run so far away.

New Courtesy: Indian Express

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/female-presence-to-lure-runaway-tiger-back-to-panna/553871/0

Top Five Reasons Why You Must Act to Save the Tiger

1. Tiger Supports Livelihood

Tourism is the world’s biggest industry. On the ecotour front, the tiger is a star attraction for not just the Indian tourists but also for the people coming from other countries. There are foriegners who come to India only to have a glimpse of the tiger and then there are others who return more than once for another such opportunity.

The look in the eyes of a canter that has just come out of a National Park after sighting a tiger is very different from the look and feel of a canter that could not sight any. This eventually impacts the tourist influx thus impacting everyone from the tour companies to the local tour guides. A healthy tiger population thus supports livelihoods as well.

2. Tiger Protects Genetic Diversity

Tiger is an umbrella species. It’s conservation automatically ensures the conversation of a large number of flora and fauna and entire ecosystems. Thus, a properly planned tiger conservation programme is actually a programme to protect and save large number of species.

However, a dwindeling tiger population and news of declining number of tigers only implies an immediate threat to what is remaining of our natural ecosystems. A healthy tiger population thus also protects all that remains of our natural ecosystems.

3. Tiger brings Rain

A tiger is a both a guardian and an indicator of a healthy forests. A healthy forests. Few understand that a live bird or insect is far more important to the economy than a dead one. A live tiger brings rain – a dead one brings nothing but devastation.

4. Tigers Prevent Climate Change

A healthy tiger population lives in large forests - which are nothing but the natural sinks of Carbon. The more tigers we can save, the more healthier reserves we have, larger is our national carbon sink. A tiger should therefore be entitled to carbon credits in the form of protection.

And last, but never the least…

5. Tiger is a symbol of our National Pride

This is what India.gov.in has to say about our National Animal:

The magnificent tiger, Panthera tigris is a striped animal. It has a thick yellow coat of fur with dark stripes. The combination of grace, strength, agility and enormous power has earned the tiger its pride of place as the national animal of India. Out of eight races of the species known, the Indian race, the Royal Bengal Tiger, is found throughout the country except in the north-western region and also in the neighbouring countries, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Courtesy:- Delhi Green

Tiger and Tourism in India

There is a movement a foot in INDIA to severely limit and even ban tourism in the core area of tiger reserves. "Tourists are to be banned from the heartlands of the 37 national tiger reserves in India amid fears that their presence is hastening the demise of an increasingly endangered species," quoted a recent news story. "Tourism creates a disturbance through vehicles, noise pollution, garbage and the need to provide facilities," said the government-run National Tiger Conservation Authority, alarmed that the tiger population has plummeted from 3642 in 2002 to just 1411 last year. There is no doubt that there needs to be a plan that will make tiger conservation and tiger tourism complementary and sustainable. And there is no doubt that some tourist zones are overcrowded at times and greater discipline is needed to control the drivers and guides who become bug-eyed steroidal cowboys when a tiger is sighted. But to imply that tourism has caused the plummet in tiger numbers is misleading and unfair.

•The tourism industry provides jobs and income to countless individuals who might otherwise be tempted to seek money from other sources. The hotel and lodge industry has an immense financial stake in the survival of the tiger. The millions of dollars invested in the lodges surrounding Ranthambhore, Kanha, and Bandhavgarh would dry up overnight if there were no tigers.

•The two tiger reserves in India that have lost every single tiger, Sariska and Panna, had minimum tourism. Bandhavgarh, on the other hand, possibly the most tourist-intense tiger park, has its tiger population flourishing in the core tourist area.

•Vehicles driving around with tourists are, in effect, anti-poaching patrols, often in the notable absence of official patrolling. Word of mouth among drivers and guides is an excellent source of keeping tabs on where the tigers are and where they are not.

•Tourism could and should be used in support of tiger conservation. The Mountain Travel Sobek Save The Tiger trip I lead has taken 146 people into tiger country and generated a significant amount of money which has been put back into the field in India and Nepal for tiger protection programs.

•Many people who have seen a tiger in the wild have become fierce tiger advocates and continue to support tiger conservation efforts.

•Tourism is not killing tigers. Tigers are being killed by the loss of habitat, poachers, wildlife crime syndicates, and the perpetuation of the myth of the efficacy of tiger medicines thousands of miles away.

Source: The Fund For The Tiger Newsletter, Summer 2009

Two Tigresses Released in Sundarbans

CANNING (WB), Jul 4 (PTI) Two tigresses caged by wildlife personnel were released in the core area of Sundarbans Tiger Reserve in West Bengal after fixing steel plates to their ears and implanting microchips on their tails.

Field director of Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, Subrat Mukhodhayay said the microchips had been brought from the US and implanted to the tigresses tails to keep a watch on their movement.

The microchips were implanted by wildlife experts from Delhi and Dehradun, he said.

Nature Trails India, a brand of Nature Trail Tours India Pvt. Ltd, visit Sundarbans National Park on our many wildlife tours to India. for details please visit our websites www.naturetrailsindia.info and www.birdwatchingtoursindia.com or email us at enquiries@naturetrailsindia.info or on ntrails@gmail.com

Madhya Pradesh (Land Of Tigers) Sets Up Special Force To Protect Tigers

BHOPAL: With its tiger population dwindling sharply over the last two years, a worried Madhya Pradesh government will deploy a Special Tiger
Protection Force in its three tiger reserves of Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench to arrest the big cat’s rapid decline.

The state government took the decision as it does not want to lose its ‘Tiger State’ tag to Karnataka due to the falling number of the big cats, according to a forest department official. The number of tigers in the state is reported to have dropped from 300 in 2007 to 232 in 2009, he said.

A tiger census conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2007 put the number of big cats in Madhya Pradesh at 300, followed by Karnataka with 290. However, another census conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 2008 has put the population in five tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh at 232 – with 89 big cats in Kanha, 47 in Bandhavgarh, 39 in Satpura, 33 in Pench and 24 in Panna.

However, in April this year a four-member central inquiry committee announced that Panna had no tigers since January. “It is regrettable that not even one tiger is left in Panna,” committee chairman and former NTCA director P.K. Sen had said after visiting the tiger reserve in eastern Madhya Pradesh.

Concerned over the report, the Madhya Pradesh government formed a six-member committee to look into the matter. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also transferred the field directors of Panna, Kanha and Bandhavgarh national parks late last month. “Now a Special Tiger Protection Force is on the anvil to protect the big cats in the various tiger reserves of the state,” a senior wild life official said, not wishing to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The state Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, H.S. Pabla, admitted that the tiger population in Panna had decreased but said the figure has remained constant in other reserves of the state.

Minister of State for Forests Rajendra Shukla last week instructed departmental officers to expedite the constitution of the Special Tiger Protection Force. Every company of the force would comprise 112 jawans, three sub-inspectors and six head constables and be headed by a deputy superintendent of police.

Constables of the force will be on deputation from the local police department and be below 40 years of age. Their deputation will continue till the police department creates permanent posts for the force.

The force will work under the control and guidance of the tiger reserve’s Field Director, who will send a monthly report about it to the National Tiger Protection Authority. The cops will be exclusively for tiger protection and be empowered to use firearms in dealing with poachers and organized criminals within the periphery of the reserves.

Officers of the state police department and central forces will impart training to the constables on skill development, dealing with poaching and acting on information.

Nature Trails India, a brand of Nature Trail Tours India Pvt. Ltd, visit Central India (Land of Tigers) Wildlife National Park on our many wildlife tours to India. for details please visit our websites www.naturetrailsindia.info and www.birdwatchingtoursindia.com or email us at enquiries@naturetrailsindia.info or on ntrails@gmail.com

News Courtesy:- Economy Times

CEC opposes NHAI Road Project in Pench Tiger Reserve

NEW DELHI: In a boost to wildlife lobby, Supreme Court-appointed Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) has shot down a controversial proposal of the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) to widen a road passing through Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, contending that it will be a threat to animals and the fragile ecosystem.

In the report submitted to the apex court last week, the CEC members said that the widening of the road connecting Nagpur to Jabalpur from two lanes to four lanes will increase traffic frequency in the area, scaring the animals, including endangered species like tigers and gaurs in the region, which may fall victim to the speeding vehicles.

The CEC also rejected the NHAI’s alternative Rs 600- crore plan to build 13 bridges and underpass on the route so that wildlife movement is not hampered, a source said.

The highway project which is a part of the North-South corridor covers a distance of 8.7 kilometer and passes through the tiger reserve and the reserve forest contiguous.

It was referred to the panel after the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) moved a petition for stopping the project alleging that road widening would fragment wildlife habitat and restrict movement of already dwindling wildlife between Pench and Kanha Tiger Reserve.

The members have, however, have not sought closing down of the road but suggested that only light vehicles at a specified speed should be permitted while a complete ban be imposed on night traffic to prevent animal casualty.

Nature Trails India, a brand of Nature Trail Tours India Pvt. Ltd, visit Pench National Park on our many Central India wildlife tours to India. for details please visit our websites www.naturetrailsindia.info and www.birdwatchingtoursindia.com or email us at enquiries@naturetrailsindia.info or on ntrails@gmail.com

News Courtesy Economic Times

Tigress shifted to Bhadra Tiger Reserve

MYSORE: The six-year-old tigress that was captured in Nagarahole
National Park will now have to get used to a new home. For it will be
relocated to the tiger reserve of Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in
Chikmagalur district.

The decision follows consultation with the experts in wildlife, who
suggested the forest officials to relocate it to some other area far
from its present location. This is to cut down chances of the tiger
coming back to the area and attacking cattle.

A team led by RFO Satish took the tigress, which was nursed at
Sunkadakatte in Nagarhole National Park, to Chikmagalur early Monday. The senior officials of the department contacted the Project Tiger officials and took their consent for its relocation.

Though the Bandipur National Park in Chamarajanagar district was
considered as a possible option it was dropped as it is close to
Nagarhole National Park, its present territory. "The experts told us
there are chances that it will come back again to its territory if it
is let out into close by forested areas. So it was decided to change
its territory, sources told `The Times of India'. However, it does not
face threat from tigers at Bhadra wildlife sanctuary since it is a
tigress and will not overlap the territory, they contended.

The prey-predator base at Bhadra is balanced and so the big cat will
not have problems. If it was a tiger it could have been a problem for
relocation. But there is no such chance here, they added. But a
wildlife activist said it could face problems in its new area which
could again push it back to take easy route to get its feed. There is
a possibility that it could start visiting the villages on the forest
fringes in Western Ghats. But the saving grace is that people in the
Western Ghats are used to threats from wild animals, he stated. Field director (project tiger) B J Hosmath was not available for comments.

Nature Trails India, a brand of Nature Trail Tours India Pvt. Ltd, visit Bhadra National Park on many South India wildlife tours to India. for details please visit our websites http://www.naturetrailsindia.info and http://www.birdwatchingtoursindia.com or email us at enquiries@naturetrailsindia.info or on ntrails@gmail.com