48 tigers in non-protected Chandrapur forest areas: Survey

There is good news for the wildlife enthusiasts as a survey conducted by Wildlife Conservation reveals that there are 48 adult tigers in forests surrounding the Tadoba Tiger Reserve at Chandrapur in MaharashtraA firstofitskind tiger estimation study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Trust WCT in areas outside the Protected Areas of the Chandrapur District of Maharashtra has revealed the presence of 48 adult tigers This pushes the number of tigers in the district to 120 including 72 living inside the TadobaAndhari Tiger Reserve as per the 2014 tiger estimation reportThe WCT study which was conducted in collaboration with the Maharashtra Forest Department covered 2000 sq km of tiger habitat that falls outside the Protected Area networkSpeaking about the exercise WCT researcher Aditya Joshi said ldquoWe identified 20 breeding tigresses which is a positive sign of the health of this multipleuselandscape Our findings have highlighted how important it is for protection nets to extend beyond Protected Areas The tiger population in Tadoba is stable because of the healthy presence of tigers in the areas around itrdquoldquoA particularly interesting aspect of the studyrdquo said WCT President Anish Andheria ldquois that the tiger density in some reserve forest blocks is actually higher than that of some tiger reserves of India For instance tiger density in the KanhalgaonCentral Chanda block is 234 which are more than that of the Melghat Tiger Reserve In the JunonaCentral Chanda block tiger density stood at 177 higher than that of the Sahyadri Tiger ReserverdquoldquoThe presence of tigers in such densities in humandominated landscapes speaks volumes about the tolerance of the people of Chandrapur and the good work put in by the forest department of Chandrapur circle This study has proved that humans and tigers can share a landscape however the future of large carnivores outside national parks and sanctuaries will depend on the efficiency of the forest department in mitigating humananimal conflict and an increased awareness among humans about tiger and leopard behaviourrdquo Andheria addedChief Conservator of Forests Chandrapur Circle Sanjay Thakre said his team was encouraged by the findings The WCT study was conducted in close conjunction with the frontline forest staff with a strong focus on building technical capacity in the forest department for future tiger estimatesAs many as 600 camera traps donated by Panthera were used for this study The study area was divided into several blocks Every block was further divided into 3 sq km grids and one camera trap pair was installed in each 3 sq km area for 25 days fulfilling the guidelines mandated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority for such studies The data was collected over 18000 camera trap nights making it the most intensive camera trapping exercise ever carried out outside Protected Areas in IndiaThe research substantiated earlier findings by WCT regarding the significance of territorial forests to the dispersal of tigers between Protected Areas in the state In 2014 WCT researchers working in the Pench Tiger Reserve photocaptured lsquoPrincersquo PTRT8 a male tiger earlier seen in the NagziraNavegaon Tiger Reserve A press release sent to the media also stated that WCT is trying to use the data collected from these studies to help design better wildlife management policies in tiger states