Human activity affecting tiger breeding in India's tiger reserves: Study

Tourism and human activity are pushing Indiarsquos tigers towards stress and affecting their breeding reveals a new study at the CSIRCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMBThe study published in the Zoological Society of London journal Animal Conservation is the first to combine noninvasive stress and reproductive hormone analyses from tigers across five major Indian tiger reserves Corbett Uttarakhand TadobandashAndhari Maharashtra Kanha and Bandhavgarh Madhya Pradesh and Periyar KeralaThe study highlights issues for each of these tiger reserves to inform better tiger management the CSIRCCMB saidMany previous studies by Dr G Umapathy at the CSIRCCMB had established that tourism and other anthropogenic activities in tiger reserves cause stress in tigers This time he led the team to systematically assess how human activities affect tiger breedingFor the first time scientists have tracked tigers across different parts of India through four seasons over two years to understand how human presence impacts tiger wellbeingThe team analysed 610 genetically confirmed tiger scat samples including 291 females and 185 males collected between 2020 and 2023 They measured two key hormone markers in these samples faecal glucocorticoid metabolites a biomarker of stress and faecal progesterone metabolites an indicator of breeding activity in females Across all reserves tigers ranging close to tourism roads and in areas with greater human disturbance consistently showed elevated stress hormone levelsA particularly striking finding is that tigers in the strictly protected core zones showed higher stress response to humancaused disturbance than those in the multiuse buffer zonesBufferzone tigers appear to have habituated to yearround human presence whereas corezone tigers register sharp spikes in stress when seasonal tourism enters these areas This challenges the assumption that core zones are uniformly lowstress refuges The effect was most pronounced in Tadoba and BandhavgarhTigresses prefer to breed in the quiet parts of the forests However it is becoming difficult to find such suitable areas In Tadoba and Corbett the buffer zones already have high tiger populations It is concerning if the core areas of the forests also become stressful for the tigressesrdquo said Dr Umapathy Chief Scientist at CSIRCCMB Not only is the reproductive success of tigers lower under stress but the young ones will also grow up differently in such conditionsThis study is a fine example of how molecular biology and physiology can be applied directly to one of Indiarsquos most important conservation priorities CSIRCCMB Director Dr Vinay Nandicoori saidCSIRCCMB takes pride in housing the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species LaCONES which has grown into a national resource for noninvasive wildlife monitoring We hope these findings will be useful to the National Tiger Conservation Authority and state forest departments as they continue to finetune the management of Indiarsquos tiger reserves he saidWe are not arguing against wildlife tourism which plays a vital role in conservation funding and supports rural livelihoods said Dr Umapathy But our findings make a clear scientific case that the regulation of tourism including vehicle numbers safari timings road density and the protection of breeding areas needs to be informed by what the animals are actually telling us through their physiologyThe study suggests key management recommendations including strict regulation of tourist vehicle numbers and prevention of vehicle crowding at tiger sightings reduction of safari duration by approximately one hour in both morning and evening sessions strengthened management of buffer zones particularly in Tadoba and Bandhavgarh to mitigate high anthropogenic disturbances creation of additional water bodies along nontourism routes to reduce dependence on roadside waterholes and continuous noninvasive physiological monitoring of known tigresses to identify and protect breeding hotspotsThe other authors who participated in this study are Aamer Shoel Vinod Kumar Gudimella Anusha and Andre GanswidtThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever