The Hindu : Front Page : Dudhwa tiger count by year-end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 08, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Dudhwa tiger count by year-end

Atiq Khan

Preliminary reports of population encouraging, says top forest official in U.P.

— Photo: AFP

STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE: A tiger yawns in the Ranthambore National Park.

LUCKNOW: With the tiger (Panthera Tigris) disappearing from Sariska and precariously placed in Ranthambhore and Bandhavgarh, forest officials are tight-lipped on their numbers in the Dudhwa tiger reserve in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh.

This year’s biennial census of the big cat was not conducted by the State Forest Department as the onus for conducting the count, through the camera trap technique, was taken over by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehra Dun, in 2006.

In 2005, there were 273 tigers in Uttar Pradesh. Of these, 247 tigers were in the Terai region, including 164 in the Dudhwa reserve.

According to the State wildlife officials, the figures of the tiger population in the Terai region and the reserve would be released by the WII at the October 8 meeting of the Indian Wildlife Board/ National Board for Wildlife.

However, WII Director P.R. Sinha said it would not be before December this year that the Institute would be able to reveal the status of the tigers. He denied the figures would be announced at the October 8 meeting. “A complete picture is yet to emerge,” Mr. Sinha told The Hindu from Dehra Dun.

Preliminary reports of the tiger population seem to have given the forest officials little cause for concern. Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, U.P., D.N.S. Suman, said the figures are “encouraging.” Mr. Suman, however, indicated that there may not be much of a difference between the head count of the big cat conducted by his department in 2005 and the one being undertaken by the WII this year. “A margin of twenty per cent plus or minus is always left when the tiger count is assessed.”

Camera trap method

The camera trap method has been used in the Dudhwa National Park and the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. The WII Director confirmed that the results were quite encouraging in Katarniaghat and different from the alarmist picture created by some agencies. Said Mr. Sinha, “Broadly speaking, a general perception is formed about the condition of the animal considering that the population varies from one tiger range to the other.”

For census estimation of tigers, the WII has divided the country into the Central landscape, Terai landscape, North-East landscape, Sundarbans, East and West Coast. The Terai landscape includes six forest divisions.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page