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Over 100 tiger sightings in Vidarbha during machan census

Vijay Pinjarkar| TNN | May 12, 2017, 04.07 AM IST

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NAGPUR : The 24-hour-long waterhole estimation to count herbivores on May 10-11, the Buddha Pournima day, concluded without hassles with over 100 direct tiger sightings by volunteers in various parks in Vidarbha and buffer zone of Tadoba.

The 100 tiger sightings may not necessarily mean exactly 100 tigers were sighted and some may have overlapping entries. Many volunteers have admitted about good sightings in Tadoba-Andhari, Melghat, Pench, Bor and Navegaon-Nagzira tiger reserves.
MS Reddy, chief conservator of forests (CCF) & field director of Melghat, said, "Melghats's three divisions, Sipna, Gugamal and Akot, recorded 1, 9 and 10 tiger sightings, respectively.

The area in Akot division from where villages have been rehabilitated have become a good home for tigers due to better prey base, said Reddy and added, "Also, 300 sloth bears were sighted."

Volunteers sighted tigers even in Navegaon National Park, which was devoid of big cats. "Volunteers recorded tigers in Navegaon and Koka. Reports for Nagzira were yet to be compiled," said deputy director (core) of NNTR, Amlendu Pathak.
CCF & field director of Pench, Rishikesh Ranjan said core and buffer areas under the tiger reserve recorded 49 tigers and 14 leopards. "There were tiger sightings in almost 60% of the Pench area. This is a good indication," Ranjan told TOI.

This includes 36 tiger sightings in Pench and its buffer, 4 in Umred-Karhandla, six in Bor and New Bor and three in Tipeshwar. Apart from tigers, 3,870 chitals and 1,229 sambars were recorded.

"On Junapani machan in Deolapar, I was lucky to sight a tigress on solar waterhole in the morning and a male at night. Volunteers on three machans sighted these tigers," said Alok Meher, a senior research fellow.

Businessman Sameer Gharote, who was on Badi Chadhai machan, said, "We were in the area of Pench's Prince but were not so lucky. But we saw many herbivores and a pack of wild dogs."
Malcolm and Mary Titus said, "It was a well-organized census."

In Tadoba, there were reports of 12-15 tiger sightings from Mohurli, Tadoba and Kolsa ranges from at least 12 machans.


"I saw a male tiger on waterhole at 12 noon. In the evening, a tigress with two cubs, and another male was sighted separately," claimed Harshavardhan Chawhan, who was at Wanarchuha (Mohurli) with his friend Roshan Japulkar.



Deputy director (municipal administration) Sudhir Shambarkar sighted a male tiger Bajrang twice. "It appeared on the Mahalgaon lake at 6.44pm and then again in the morning. It was lifetime experience for my daughter Aishwarya," said Shambarkar.
Tadoba buffer saw record 27 tiger and nine leopard sightings. "We had 109 waterholes in which 252 volunteers and staff took part," said Gajendra Narwane, deputy director (buffer), Tadoba. Reply