Considerable difference in estimated tiger numbers and the actual sightings/camera trap images marks the final results of the Tiger Census report for the Telangana State, for the year 2018.
The pan-India Tiger Census final report was released on Tuesday by the Union Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF) Prakash Javadekar at Delhi. In Telangana, the actual number of unique tigers were only 10, as analysed from the images captured on camera traps. Seven of them were from Amrabad Tiger Reserve and one each from Kawal Tiger Reserve, Chennur Reserve Forest and Kagaz Nagar Reserve Forest. The report, however, noted that there were no resident tigers in the Kawal Tiger Reserve, indicating that the one tiger counted was transient. However, the estimated mean number of the striped big cats for Telangana State, as summarised by the report, was 26, which is a total 16 tigers over and above the captured ones. The mean was calculated with an error margin between 23-30 tigers.
Officials from the Forest department have clarified that the camera trap images were the minimum number of tigers from the State, while the estimates are based on the analysis of indirect evidence which includes scats, pug marks, scratches on tree bark, and the tigers’ killings. Corresponding difference between estimated number and the camera captures for the Nagarjuna Sagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve was relatively low. While the mean estimated number was 48 with an error margin between 40 and 56, the actual number of unique tigers arrived at through the camera trap image analysis was 38.
The report has placed both Amrabad and Kawal tiger reserves among regions which are below their potential, and require resources and targeted management.
Livestock grazing, timber smuggling and hunting and resources extraction made the Amrabad Tiger Reserve vulnerable to habitat degradation and biodiversity extinction, the report noted, while recommending reduction of resource extraction, incentivised voluntary relocation of human habitation and control of poaching for re-population of Kawal.
Prey density estimates were not done in both tiger reserves as sightings were few, the report said. Imran Siddique from the Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society (HyTiCoS) contested the authenticity of the tiger census report and criticised it as faulty and inaccurate.
“The tiger numbers of both Andhra and Telangana have been grossly under-represented in the final report. This is inconsistent with the numbers announced earlier. The prey numbers are also not reported which makes the report incomplete,” he said, claiming that the number of tigers was much higher than estimated, and the prey base too was not bad.
