Bigcats News

[Sanju]

Now focus on tiger prey base, habitat: Experts
Himanshu Kaushik | TNN | Feb 13, 2019, 05:44 IST

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Picture for representational purpose only.

AHMEDABAD: If Gujarat wants to be the only state in India (apparently in the whole world for now before MP)  that is home to three big cats — lions, tigers, and leopards — it will have to ensure adequate prey base in Central Gujarat and Dang and will have to prepare a plan to rehabilitate people.

Quote:“If Gujarat wants to conserve tigers, it will have to create a National Park or a Sanctuary for a tiger reserve spanning at least 500-800 sq km, which can house a sizeable population of tigers,” said Y V Jhala, an expert on big cats who is associated with the National Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA). “Lions can live close to people, but tigers need isolated spaces.”

Jhala said to create a sanctuary, the Gujarat forest department will have to relocate people from Dang by offering a compensation package that will persuade them to move voluntarily. He said that once the sanctuary is free of people, the department will have to ensure that the population of chital and sambhar is increased in the area.

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Quote:Jhala said one or two tigers cannot create a stable population. “We need a sizeable population so that Gujarat becomes one more state needing tiger conservation,” he said. A lone tiger will not survive for long, he said. 

(So hence, they have to make exchange with MP by offering Lion as the tiger most probably came from MP's Ujjain all the way in the search of a mate)


A K Saxena, the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), said: “Even if a wandering tiger visits the state, the state will have to create habitat for it.” Saxena said the state will have to preserve the tiger corridor through which it enters the state.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city...967179.cms

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Tiger may have hiked from Madhya Pradesh to Gujarat

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Tiger A comparison of the stripes of the tiger spotted in Gujarat and MP - Nikhil Ghanekar
Updated: Feb 13, 2019, 05:45 AM IST

The confirmation of a tiger's presence in Gujarat's Lunawada in Mahisagar district has come as a glimmer of hope for a possible comeback of the striped cat in a state where the last tiger was sighted over three decades ago in Dangs.
Now, it has come to light that in all likelihood, the tiger traversed nearly 350 km and reached Gujarat from a forest division in Dewas forest range, Madhya Pradesh.
Senior officials from MP forest department said that a tiger had settled in the Dewas forest range between March 2016 and June 2018 and was tracked up to the MP-Gujarat border.

Preliminary comparison of camera trap photos of the tiger, clicked in MP as well as in Gujarat recently, show matching stripe patterns, suggesting that it is the same tiger, Chief Conservator of Forest, Ujjain, said.

Wildlife biologists collaborating with the MP forest department to track the tiger also confirmed that the tiger spotted in Gujarat indeed had stripe patterns similar to the one that had settled in the Dewas range. Gujarat forest department officials could not be reached for comment.

"Based on preliminary photos, we can say that it is the same tiger. Our team had tracked the tiger up to the MP-Gujarat border near Petlawad in Jhabua. After June 2018, it disappeared. We did not even see pug marks or other signs. It survived in Dewas and surrounding areas on Nilgai in the scrub forests," said BS Annagiri.

As per Annagiri and his team, the tiger may have reached Lunawada via Dahod after crossing into Gujarat. During the time it was in MP, it also moved towards Indore and Ujjain from Dewas and there were times when it was not seen for weeks.

The development comes even as MP has been awaiting translocation of lions from Gujarat to Kuno-Palpur sanctuary, as per Supreme Court orders. Tigers traversing long distances using corridors is not unusual and there have been cases where tigers have covered a 500 km expanse between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, using forested corridors outside tiger reserves and national parks.

"This dispersal highlights the need for conserving corridors. If corridors exist, wild animals will naturally recolonise areas were they have gone extinct," said Milind Pariwakam, wildlife biologist, Wildlife Conservation Trust and member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, connectivity and conservation specialist group.

The Kheoni wildlife sanctuary is the closest protected area to Dewas, situated around 130 km away, which in turn is also connected through corridors with the Ratapani wildlife sanctuary which lies to the east of Kheoni.

https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-ti...at-2719391 Reply