LUCKNOW: The latest edition of tiger census has started getting fingers raised at it. The UP forest department has conveyed its dis-satisfaction over the count of tigers in the state to the concerned authorities, as the 2011 census has missed out on Bijnore landscape that makes tigers in UP "under-assessed".
"It is surprising that Bijnore landscape has not found a mention," said BK Patnaik, Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW), UP. The last tiger census had shown Bijnore forests with an area of 221 sq km having a small population of tigers. The 2011 census, however, has said nothing about tigers present in Bijnore.
As per the 2008 census report, 3-4 tigers were present in Bijnore. This time around, 112 tigers are shown present in Dudhwa-Kheri-Pilibhit-Katarniaghat, 5 in Suhelwa and 1 in Sohagibarwa taking the total number of tigers in the state to 118 sans Bijnore.
When asked about the possibility of Bijnore having no tigers, CWW said, "The area has tiger signs and it was established in the first phase."
Besides, there have been cattle-lifting incidents reported from the area.
Bijnore, more or less has a dispersing population of tigers from Corbett Tiger Reserve. In UP, major population is constituted by Dudhwa tiger reserve, Kishenpur wildlife sanctuary, Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary, Pilibhit forests, North and South Kheri forest divisions.
The two smaller eastern populations are in Suhelwa wildlife sanctuary and Sohagibarwa wildlife sanctuary and a smaller population in west is in Bijnore. The fact that tiger occupancy area has increased in the state does not make it believable that Bijnore has no tigers. UP has a total forest area of 14341 sq km. In 2008 report, 2766 sq km was shown as tiger occupied area and in 2011 report, tiger occupied area increased to 2948 sq km. The trends of population growth have been shown stable.
When forest department brought up the issue with the census authorities, they said that they will include the landscape and tigers present in fourth phase, which will be for area-wise estimation. The tiger estimation exercise is being undertaken every four years since 2006. The 2010 exercise was carried out between December 2009 and December 2010.
The exercise was done in three phases, field data collected at the beat level (beat is a primary patrolling area), analysis of habitat status of tiger forests using satellite data and camera trapping where individual tigers were identified from photographs based on their unique stripe patterns. The data is collected for sampled (representative) sites and the information is extrapolated.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Bijnore-tigers-left-out-of-Census-2011/articleshow/7888473.cms
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