ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Apollo]

Orang National Park, Assam, India

1)

This study was published in the year (2008-2009)

Orang National Park (92˚16' to 92˚27' E, 26˚29' to 26˚40' N) is located in Darrang and Sonitpur districts of Assam and has an area of 78.80 sq. km.

Based on the recent satellite imagery, the wildlife habitat types in Orang can be categorized into the following habitat types :

*This image is copyright of its original author

The mighty river Brahmaputra flows through southern boundary of the Park that is crisscrossed by a network of channels connecting the mighty river, particularly during the monsoon. Small tributaries Pachnoi River, Belsiri River and Dhansiri River flow along the boundaries of the Park and ultimately meet the Brahmaputra River. There are twelve wetlands, some of them are already heavily silted and 26 man made water bodies in the Park (Talukdar and Sharma, 1995).

As per the estimation carried out in 2006, the park harbours about 68 Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) along with sympatric species like – Hog Deer (Axis porcinus), Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa), Fishing Cat (Felis viverrina), Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) and Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis).

*This image is copyright of its original author

Main Objectives of this Project :
 

1. Objective I (Evaluate, monitor and document population of tiger and its prey animals).
2. Objective II (Assess and document growing tiger-human conflict, and design and implement action oriented conflict reduction measures).
3. Objective III (Consult, motivate and involve local communities towards long-term conservation of tiger, its prey and habitats).
4. Objective IV (Develop capacity of local wildlife biologists and forest department staff in evaluation and monitoring of tiger and its prey population).
   

Results of this Project :


 
Sign Survey :

Sign survey was carried out on roads and trails in Orang National Park and 150 km of road transect were carried out during November-December 2007. The total tiger signs encountered were 108 and overall tiger sign encounter rate was calculated 7.2/10 km. The result summary is given below:

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Camera Trapping :

There was camera trapping operation in the park from May 25 to June 14, 2008. During the 20 days of camera trapping they used camera traps at 27 trap locations. During the 540 trap-nights there was 20 photographs of seven individual tigers that include two males, four females and one individual of unknown sex was obtained.

Other than tiger photographs there was also a large number of photographs of rhino, hog deer, wild boar, porcupine, large Indian civet, small Indian civet, palm civet, fishing cat, jungle cat and leopard cat, and even birds.

This is the camera used to capture pictures.

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Prey Availability:

The likely prey species of tiger in Orang National Park are Hog deer, Wild pig, and Cattle. The team ran altogether 10 Elephant Line Transect and 4 Line Transect on foot to estimate the abundance of the prey species density. The transects covered all the different habitats present in the area viz. Tall Grasslands, Short Grasslands and Mixed Deciduous Forest . We walked on each transect between 0600 to 1000 hr and 1600 to 1900 hr.

The below figure shows the relative abundance of the common prey species of tiger encountered during transects. Hog Deer and cattle are the most abundant prey species.

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