Tiger Census at Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradesh this Month

By: Rang7 Team November 4, 2011 Tigers in Arunachal Pradesh’s two National Parks; Namdapha National Park and Pakhe Wildlife Sanctuary are alls et to have a head count. With the new tiger policy by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (“NTCA”) which states that tiger census should be conducted annually instead of every four years, the census will be conducted at the two parks in the state this month. Namdapha National Park is considered to have the richest biodiversity of flora and fauna in the region. The park located in Changlang district is the only National Park in India where all four big cats - tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard have been found together. The census will be conducted at Namdapha and Pakhe by scientific methods through the use of the latest equipment and technology including sophisticated cameras which are to be provided by NTCA. The cameras will be placed at a distance of about 1 km for 35 to 60 days at a single location to trap the images of tigers. Reputed wildlife NGO’s will be involved in the census and will be trained by the Wildlife Institute of India (“WII”) of Dehradun along with other forest staff for technicalities involved in the project. NTCA hopes the tiger population numbers will be higher than before as proper survey in the dense forests of this state having 82 per cent coverage is yet to be conducted. Arunachal Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife & biodiversity) J.L. Singh said, “The World Wildlife Fund for Nature-India (WWFI) will be involved in the survey in Pakke while services of the Assam-based Aaranyak will be availed in Namdapha for authenticating the data collected.” Formerly the tiger census was carried out across the country using only the pug mark method. But with doubts over its accuracy, today multiple methods are used to arrive at a more accurate figure. As per the tiger census conducted in 2000-01, Namdapha National park recorded 11 tigers, but the tiger census conducted in 2006 suggested the presence of only four tigers in the park. Later it was clarified that the low number of tigers recorded was because WII had conducted the census in only selected areas of the park. However though the tiger census in 2006 was limited to certain areas only, there is known to be a decline in the tiger population at Namdapha. Namdapha Tiger Reserve has slowly been experiencing large scale encroachment since the mid eighties by Lisus, a tribe originating in China, who are good tiger hunters. “The reported decline in tiger population is mainly due to encroachment of the park’s buffer zone by 84 families of the Lisus tribe from across the border,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) B.S. Sajwan had claimed recently. Still to ascertain that the Namdapha National Park had a good population of the Royal Bengal Tigers the NTCA conducted an expedition mode in four zones of the Namdapha Tiger Reserve during November, 2008 to February, 2009 in which evidence of four tigers at different locations was found. Those involved in the census were forest officials and volunteers from an NGO, Nature’s Beckon in Assam. The data sheets and scat samples were handed over to Aranayak, an Assam based organisation for analysis and the results proved the existence of a good sizeable number of tigers in the park The tiger population in Pakhe Wildlife Sanctuary as per the last tiger census is nine. Some of the other National Parks and sanctuaries in Arunachal Pradesh include Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Sessa Orchid Sanctuary, Mouling National Park, Eagle Nest Wildlife Sanctuary and others. The Royal Bengal Tigers which once had a large presence throughout the world almost totaling to 100,000, is now reduced to barely 3500 in numbers. The drastic reduction in the tiger numbers over the world has resulted because tigers have lost more than 97 per cent of their population and 94 per cent of their home range in just 100 years. India too had just about 1411 tigers as per the census in 2007. The species is naturally considered an endangered wildlife species today, though the numbers have increased in India to 1706 as per the census conducted in 2009-10. The area-wise tiger population shown are: Shivalik-Gangetic plains -353; Central and Eastern Ghats - 601; Western Ghats - 534; Brahmaputra flood plains & North-East hills - 148; and Sunderbans in West Bengal- 70, totaling to 1,706, according to data released by All India Tiger Estimation in March 2011. http://www.rang7.com/news/national-park/tiger-census-namdapha-national-park-arunachal-pradesh-this-month-966.htm