Tigers of Ranthambore & Western India Landscape

[Rishi]

The curious case of 'missing' tigers from Ranthambore
Over two dozen tigers have grown up & left the park in last decade, but most of them are now out of radar of the Rajasthan forest department. 

Shreya
Saturday | Feb 22, 2020 |13:49 IST

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Jaipur, Feb 22:Claiming that 26 tigers were missing from Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan, BJP MP and member of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) Diya Kumari has written to the Union environment minister, demanding a high level inquiry in the matter. Kumari said a report has been submitted to the state government, stating that 26 tigers are missing from the park, which is located in Sawai Madhopur district.
The MP also stated in her letter that the attitude of officials concerned and authorities of the park was "half-hearted and lackadaisical".

"A national park is supposed to conserve the endangered animals and not lead to the decrease(?) in their numbers," she said in her letter, written on Wednesday.
She also said the poachers must be identified, caught and strict action must be taken against them to prevent recurrence of incidents.
Earlier, on Monday, BJP MLA Chandrabhan Singh Aakya had also raised the issue of missing tigers in Ranthambhore during Zero Hour in the assembly.

6 tigers go missing in 2018

In 2018, the authorities reported that it couldn't track the tiger cubs litter of tigress T-83 known as Lightning.
Prior to that another missing report was filed regarding the missing T-77, a sub-adult male tiger from Zone 10 later photographed in Kuno of Madhya Pradesh, taking the total tally of missing tiger to be 6 in the year 2018.

Capacity of 50 Tigers but houses 71 Tigers

The Ranthambore forest has a capacity of 50 tigers but currently houses 71 tigers.
In such a situation, either the tigers will have a mutual conflict or they will come out of the forest into the human populated areas.
Reportedly, Ranthambore does not have enough space for a male tiger. A tiger should have at three tigresses, but a deteriorating space availability for males has also caused concern in the region.

Need to build tiger corridors

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The simple solution to this is that corridors should be built for tigers.
Of India's total of 50 tiger reserves, spanning an area of 71,027 square kilometres, only 40,340 square kilometres is the core tiger habitat, while the rest of the area are 'buffer' forests. A tiger corridor is a stretch of such land linking tiger habitats, allowing movement of tigers, prey and other wildlife. 
They will also connect Ranthambore Tiger population to Madhya Pradesh & bring in new genetic stock. 

Two tigers T-116 & another unidentified one of Ranthambhore have been roaming in the forests near Sirmathura, Bari for several days northeast of RTR. Another for has camped in a mustard field near Mei Kalan to the southwest for last 48 hours. 
Development of proper satellite habitat for tigers in adjoining forests like Kailadevi & Ramgarh are need of the hour. Reply