Sept. 28: More tigers are on the prowl the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tirunelveli district.
In what comes as a fillip to the ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign, the number of the big striped cats in the reserve is said to have doubled. Tiger reserve field director and chief conservator of forests H. Mallesappa said there are 13 big cats in the reserve as of date compared to six in 2006. This has been confirmed scientifically through camera traps, he added.
Wildlife sources said the census showed that there were three males, seven females and three cubs in the reserve at present. KMTR also supports about 60 panthers, two dozen elephants and more than 100 varieties of migratory birds.
The other flagship species that are found in KMTR include the giant squirrel and the lion-tailed macaque. The reserve forest also supports a healthy herbivore population comprising Indian gaur and spotted deer, wildlife sources added.
“The state forest department is currently using camera traps in all the three tiger reserves after the Centre allocated several crores of rupees for a holistic census,” said chief conservator of forests (wildlife) V.N. Singh, adding that the scientific results are encouraging.
Top wildlife officials and field directors of Project Tiger reserves in Tamil Nadu, however, admitted that an authenticated report would be available only after the scientific studies and camera trap images are released by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/tiger-number-doubles-kalakkad-pictures-show-237
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