72 tigers seen in camera traps at Nagarhole

For the first time, the Forest Department has captured 72 tigers through camera traps at Nagarhole National Park. Tracking tigers through nearly 400 cameras donated by a private company under its corporate social responsibility scheme, officials estimate that the reserve houses more than 92 tigers. Apart from an exercise to find out the tiger population, the monitoring system can find out habits and habitats of the endangered feline, while also revealing tiger corridors and reasons for man-animal conflict.

Tiger reserves

Meanwhile, Minister for Forests B. Ramanath Rai has said the process for declaration of Cauvery and M.M. Hills Wildlife Sanctuaries as tiger reserves was underway. With support from forest dwellers as well as local representatives, he believed there were no hindrances in bringing them under the Project Tiger ambit. However, he said that the declaration of Kudremukh National Park, which has already received approval from the Centre for Project Tiger, is tricky due to local opposition and ‘malinformation’ spread by politicians in the area.

Negligence

Also, the Forest Department would fix responsibility for the lapses that allowed a captured leopard to escape from Bannerghata park on February 14. The leopard had been caught after a dramatic 10-hour operation from a school at Whitefield, where the feline had strayed on February 7. A week later, it managed to slip through three layers of security at the rescue centre, Bannerghata Biological Park. A five-member committee was formed, and it submitted the report on February 23. Additional Chief Secretary Mahendra Jain said the report has shown negligence on the part of park officials.