The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Tiger census shows good signs in State

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Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Tiger census shows good signs in State

Alladi Jayasri

Exercise by Wildlife Institute of India counts 39 tigers in Nagarahole and Bandipur forests

Camera-trapping method was used for census
Fourth phase of census will be held in January

BANGALORE: The Dehra Dun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), entrusted with the task of conducting a tiger census by Project Tiger, recently completed the exercise in the State’s Nagarahole and Bandipur wildlife sanctuaries where the camera-trapping method indicated the presence of 14 and 25 of the big cats respectively.

“This is the third phase of the exercise across the tiger landscapes in India, and the final analysis of the data will be in the public domain by December-end. We are especially enthused by the showing at Bandipur, where 25 individual tigers were encountered in the study area of 125 sq. km,” K. Sankar, WII professor and research coordinator, in the south, for the project ‘Monitoring tigers and co-predators and their habitats’, told The Hindu.

Better scenario

Bandipur was covered in the summer of 2007, while Nagarahole, where the 14 tigers were identified over a 120-sq.-km area, was surveyed recently, after the southwest monsoon. Dr. Sankar said the number of tigers in Bandipur showed it to be much better than the Madhya Pradesh or central tiger landscapes, which are considered to be well-managed and better protected.

Camera-trapping has been used in the entire exercise, which is a vast improvement on the earlier method of relying on pugs. From impression pads to plaster casts to the more recent use of digital cameras to photograph pugs, this method of arriving at the number of tigers has not been thrown out the window despite its limitations. Digital cameras are used to photograph the pugs, which are then analysed using computers to identify tigers on various parameters. Yet the availability of good quality pugs suitable for analysis is no more than 20 to 25 per cent

Sariska case

This has been one of the reasons why a correct assessment could not be made of the tiger population, when tigers “disappeared” in Sariska three years ago, and in the Western Ghats, where Karnataka’s three tiger reserves fall. The problem is compounded by dense vegetation, leaf-litter and rocky terrain.

Dr. Sankar, who made it clear that the present exercise to estimate the number of tigers would take into consideration all the data, said there would be no comparison with the statistics of previous years. “We are not looking at how many tigers or other predators there are. This is an exercise in applying science to conservation. We need to look at where we are going and how we will get there.”

The figures for central Indian landscapes were declared by the Project Tiger authorities a few days ago. There are only 490 tigers in the 16 reserves across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh (excluding the Indravati reserve), down from 1,233 in 2002. India’s tiger population has fallen drastically. Initial estimates from 16 of the country’s 28 tiger reserves in 2006-07 indicate a 50 per cent fall in the last five years.

Dr. Sankar said that in Bandipur and Nagarahole, two cameras placed every 2 km apart over the chosen expanse of forest were used. The line-transect method, used to estimate the prey population, another way of applying science to conservation, was also used. A healthy prey-predator ratio has always been known as the best indicator of the health of a forest, he said.

Fourth phase

During the fourth phase of the census, some time in January 2008, Karnataka’s third tiger reserve, Anshi-Dandeli, will be taken up, along with ten other reserves all over the country. Another method, radio-collaring and telemetry, will be applied this time.

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