Roving tiger trapped, on camera

November 7, 2011 By LALIT SHASTRI DC BHOPAL Many questions on tiger conservation have sprung up with the first clear pictures taken by “camera trapping” of a tiger moving in the forest track between Kerwan dam and Kathotia on Bhopal’s southern periphery early in the morning on November 2. After sighting pug marks, the forest authorities used the camera trapping method and managed to photograph the tiger. They also got clear pictures of a wild bear and hyenas moving in the same territory. Forest officers are worried about the fate of this tiger, which obviously strayed here from the Ratapani sanctuary, where the number of tigers has gone up almost 70 per cent since 2006. Their chief concern is the reckless way in which educational institutions have been allowed to come up in the buffer forest zone in the past few years by successive state governments in total disregard of conservationists’ objections. A senior wildlife department official said while Ratapani and its surroundings, which has thick forest cover, was one of India’s best tiger habitats, there was an attempt to have this forested track declared as a “public-semi-public” (PSP) area in the new Bhopal master plan. Even before this master plan could see light of day, educational institutions had been allowed to come up in this eco-sensitive zone, he noted. Forest officials had last month caught a gang of poachers in this area, seizing a trap and other poaching gear. While one of those arrested was working with an educational institute in this area, another was working at the Bhopal municipal corporation. This gang is being interrogated to investigate if there is a larger conspiracy to remove every trace of tigers moving in this territory. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/roving-tiger-trapped-camera-493

Collars preventing tigers from breeding?

The 1.5 kg collars probably make it tough for tigers to breed. Collared tigers in Ranthambhore National Park (RNP) and Sariska are showing an intriguing behaviour that has flummoxed wildlife scientists. With a contraption weighing over 1.5 kg around their necks, they are finding it difficult to breed. The scientists suspect that tigress No. 17 in Ranthambhore and five relocated big cats, including three females, at Sariska Tiger Reserve were finding the radio collars too much of a burden when it comes to getting cozy with a mate. The five tigers at Sariska were relocated in phases from Ranthambhore since 2008 to repopulate the reserve. Sariska became a "tigerless" reserve in 2004. Now, failed breeding has put a question mark on the repopulation programme of Sariska that was taken up at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Collars are put on tigers to monitor their movements - usually on those who have been either shifted from one forest area to another or if the animal's territory falls in a sensitive location close to the reserve's border and near human habitation. None of these apply to Ranthambhore's T17 - renamed Krishna after Rajasthan's champion athlete Krishna Punia. She is the only tiger born and brought up in Ranthambhore carrying a radio collar since June 23, 2008. For the record, T17 is the most sighted tiger of Ranthambhore with a territory that ranges from Jhalra, Padma Talab, Rajbagh, Malick Talab, Manduk and Singhdwar of the park. To make matters worse, her radio collar stopped sending signals 18 months ago. Forest officials neither cared to replace nor remove it. Chief wildlife warden U. M. Sahai said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has asked the Wildlife Institute of India to send a doctor to tranquilise the tigress to remove the collar. But the doctor was on leave. Ironically, Jaipur zoo doctor Arvind Mathur was very much available and he has the experience of successfully tranquilising around 10 tigers in the past. Wildlife enthusiast Dhirendra Godha said the collar could be a possible reason for the full-grown adult tigress not breeding. NTCA expert Rajpal Singh seconded Godha's views. He said T17' s sister, T19, who is not collared gave birth to three cubs around six months ago. A similar situation prevailed in Sarika too. None of the three tigresses have been able to reproduce and experts have not detected any hormonal imbalance, which affects their fertility. Apart from the radio collars, disturbances from the two highways bisecting the reserve, the stress of being shifted from Ranthambhore and acclimatising with a new environment could be the other factors for the sterility. Rajpal Singh said samples have been sent to the Hyderabad-based National Centre for Biological Sciences to test if there were any biological reason. Experts, including Godha, said the common factor between T17 and the Sariska tigresses was the radio collar. They agreed that there was no scientific evidence to prove the collar could be an impediment, but it needed to be explored. State's principal chief wildlife warden R. N. Mehrotra said his department was contemplating doing away with the collars once and for all because these "infringe upon the privacy of the tigers". Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/collared-tigers-ranthambhore-national-park-sariska-tiger-reserve/1/158920.html

Seven poachers held, tiger skin found

TNN Nov 6, 2011, 08.19AM IST LUCKNOW: There is no end to poaching incidents in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. While about half a dozen poachers were arrested in Uttarakhand in October, one was arrested in UP. Most of these poachers have a history of wildlife crime against them. They have been arrested several times in the past but come out on bail and again start poaching. In the latest incident reported from Sharda range of Haldwani forest division in Uttarakhand's Champawat district, a tiger skin, bones and meat were recovered. The forest team and police seized a jaw trap, knives and 'ballam' and arrested seven persons. The forest department patrolling team found the skin in the forest, recovered meat from near-by area and bones from the hide-out of Van Gujjars. Ads by Google Elephants in South Africa Find out all about magical wildlife holiday opportunities in SA! SouthAfrica.net Club Mahindra Resorts Holiday in all seasons. Quality resorts & excellent hospitality! ClubMahindra.com/Fun-Family-Forever The arrested persons were identified as Totha Ram, Ram Chander, Naresh, Iqbal Gujjar, Hashim Gujjar and his two sons, Yakoob and Karim, all notorious poachers. "Totharam has been arrested before also. He is out on bail," said Tito Joseph from Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). Totharam is one of the most notorious poachers. He was arrested on May 21, 2003, from Champawat and a leopard skin was recovered from him. On August 10, 2004, the forest department caught him again from Khatima range of terai east division. And, with the help of WPSI, the department recovered a tiger skin with 16 bullet marks from him. Notorious poacher Sansar Chand's telephone number was also recovered from his dairy. He was convicted to 3-years rigorous imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine by civil judge, Khatima. But he got bail from the sessions court. Third time, he was arrested from Banbasa, Champawat on November 18, 2009. An iron trap, another half-made trap, two deer antlers, knives and poaching equipments were seized from him. But, again got bail. Similarly, UP forest department also arrested a poacher with 13 wildlife crime cases against him on October 11. The poacher Tikaram was arrested from Dudhwa along with three others. The forest officials of Bilrayen range of Dudhwa got information that a poaching net had been set up to trap wild animals. The officials reached the spot with the police and nabbed four persons - Tikaram, his son Pothi, and two others - with net, meat of wild boar and a stub. There are 13 wildlife crime cases against Tikaram in Bilrayen range only. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-06/lucknow/30366378_1_totha-ram-tiger-skin-poachers

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

Labyrinth of canals cuts into tiger path

Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN Nov 5, 2011, 01.17AM IST NAGPUR: The canal network of irrigation projects has fragmented the continuity of wildlife and is sounding the death knell for tigers and wildlife in Central India. Following the Tass tragedy when a tigress was rescued from well adjacent to a canal, the Satpuda Foundation wrote to the state government highlighting the adverse impacts of canals on tiger corridors in Central India specially in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The foundation works in Melghat region for the conservation of the wildcat. The projects sanctioned in the past few years, specially in and around tiger habitats and corridors like the Upper Wardha (Amravati), Bawanthadi (Nagpur-Bhandara-Balaghat-Seoni), Ghodazari (Bhandara) and Gosikhurd (Bhandara-Nagpur) have started creating adverse impacts on wildlife. Urgent steps are needed to save wild animals and for their best management. Bawanthadi: The Bawanthadi dam (Rajiv Sagar Interstate Irrigation Project) in Nagpur, Bhandara, Seoni and Balaghat districts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, respectively, has hit tigers as some of its canals fall in corridor connecting Pench reserve and Nagzira sanctuary. Tiger habitat continuity between Pench (both in Maharashtra and MP) with Kanha reserve is through this forest belt in the north-west Balaghat forest. Statistics with the forest department say that the Bawanthadi project has actually destroyed 2,350 hectares of tiger forest and now its 100km canal is causing serious threats to wild animals in the tiger habitat. Monkeys climb down into the canal to drink water and are unable to come up. Forest department had even kept a ladder for them. "But what about other animals like gaurs, tigers and herbivores," asks Kishor Rithe, Satpuda Foundation chief. Forest officials said a joint committee to suggest mitigation measures has been set up for Bawanthadi. The works will be appropriately designed and technically approved by both the departments. Gosikhurd: The Gosikhurd project is under construction and encompasses good forest areas with rich vegetation and wildlife. However, the project has fragmented corridors. Of late, there have been frequent incidents of wild animals getting trapped in its canals. The irrigation and forest departments need to identify areas where passages (bridges with natural look) can be constructed on the canals for wild animals so that the corridors are not obstructed and they can move and migrate freely. However no action is being taken. Upper Wardha: The Upper Wardha project has also fragmented the corridor to Bor sanctuary in Wardha district. It has actually isolated the presence of gaurs in Bor. Ghodazari: The Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) maintains a fragmented wildlife corridor with Navegaon National Park through the Bramhapuri forest division. However, man-animal conflict is high in this area. The canal network of Ghodazari project has already created a problem for the wildlife in the area. Itiadoh: Work on this project in Gondia district has been completed. However, the canal in the Zasinagar area fragments wildlife corridor of Navegaon. The forest and irrigation departments need to design mitigation measures for this. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-05/nagpur/30363366_1_bawanthadi-project-canal-network-kanha

Tiger census at Arunachal reserves to start this month

The Hindu A tiger at Bandipur. National Tiger Conservation Authority will start the exercise in the two tiger reserves of Arunachal Pradesh along with 37 others in the country this month. File photo In keeping with the new policy to conduct tiger census annually instead of every four years, the National Tiger Conservation Authority will start the exercise in the two tiger reserves of Arunachal Pradesh along with 37 others in the country this month. The number of tigers in the two reserves in Arunachal Pradesh, Namdapha and Pakke, would be determined using scientific methods and reputed NGOs would be involved in the process, Arunachal Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife & biodiversity) J.L. Singh said. The NTCA would provide all the necessary equipment, including sophisticated cameras, while experts of the Wildlife Institute of India would provide the technical training to the field staff of the project. Mr. 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.” The NTCA decided to hold an annual census considering serious doubts cast on the accuracy of the methodologies adopted in the exercise, Mr. Singh said. The Namdapha Tiger Reserve in Changlang district is the only national park in India where all four big cats -- tiger (Panthera Tigris), leopard (Panthera Pardus), snow leopard (Panthera Uncia) and clouded leopard (Neofelis Nebulosa) have been found. The country’s tiger population is estimated to be 3,500, the figure having been arrived at through using the big cat’s pug marks, but the method is considered not very reliable. According to the 2001-2002 census, there were 11 wild cats in the Namdapha park, but the 2006 census had shown them only four. The state forest department, however, has claimed that the 2006 census by the WII was incorrect as it was done in selected areas of the tiger reserve. Besides the decline in tiger population, the reserve experienced 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. In fact, to ascertain the presence of tigers, a survey as per an NTCA directive was conducted on 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. The forest officials, along with volunteers from ’Nature’s Beckon’, an NGO from Assam, had participated in the survey. The data sheets and scat samples were submitted to Aaranyak for analysis and compilation and the DNA test of scats encouragingly confirmed existence of tigers in the Park. Mr. Singh said the details of the camera trap method would be submitted to the NTCA for sanction of funds for conducting a survey. Giving details of the method, he said the cameras are placed at a distance of about 1 km for 35 to 60 days at a single location to trap the images of tigers. He said the data would be very encouraging as proper survey in the dense forests of this state having 82 per cent coverage is yet to be conducted. The tiger population in Pakke is estimated to be nine. India, home to half the world’s wild tigers, surprised global conservationists with its announcement last March that its tiger population had increased to 1,706 from 1,411 according to a tiger census conducted in 2007. The area-wise tiger population shown were: Shivalik-Gangetic plains -- 353; Central and Eastern Ghats -- 601; Western Ghats -- 534; Brahmaputra flood plains & North-East hills -- 148; and Sunderbans -- 70, totalling 1,706, according to data released by All India Tiger Estimation in March 2011. Numbering more than 100,000 at the turn of the last century, tigers have lost more than 97 per cent of their population and 94 per cent of their home range in just 100 years. http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2597366.ece?homepage=true