A slew of events marked the International Tiger Day celebrations at Bandipur and Nagarahole, two of the country’s premier tiger reserves, on Thursday.
Bandipur and Nagarahole have the highest number of tigers in the State followed by the BRT Tiger Sanctuary, Bhadra and Kali tiger reserves. But in terms of densities, Nagarahole had 11.82 tigers per 100 sq km in 2018. It had 135 tigers in 2020 while the tiger density reached almost 12 per 100 sq km.
Similarly, Bandipur had 126 tigers in 2018 and had 7.7 tigers per 100 sq km while BRT had 49 tigers with a density of 4.96 tigers per 100 sq.km and Bhadra has 28 tigers with a density of 2.86 tigers per 100 sq km
In the Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey released in July 2020, it transpired that Karnataka harboured high number of tigers at M.M. Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, Madikeri Wildlife Division, Madikeri Territorial Division, Virajpet Territorial Division, Koppa Wildlife Division, and Haliyal Forest Division which is part of Joida taluk of Uttara Karnataka district, among others.
In Bandipur the authorities released Nama Bandipur, a promotional video of the national park, and a book titled ‘Birds of Bandipur.’ A cycle jatha entailing cycling from Melkamanahalli at the entry point of Bandipur to Gundlupet, S.Begur, Hediyala, Sargur, Handpost, Hunsur, Bilikere and Mysuru was flagged off. Seedballs were dispersed in Kundgere range by the local eco development committee while 300 bags of trash were removed from the Nugu backwaters to mark the occasion.
Vijaykumar Gogoi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), R.S. Natesh, Director, Bandipur, and Sanjay Gubbi, wildlife biologist, were among those present.
At Nagarahole, Conservator of Forests Mahesh Kumar recalled the growth of tigers and the success story of Nagarahole Tiger Reserve over the years. He pointed out 200.57 sq km of buffer was declared as protected area in 2019, thus taking the total area of the tiger reserve to 843.93 sq km. While there were 72 tigers as per the 2014 estimations, the numbers increased to 125 tigers in 2018 census. The 2020 enumeration conducted at the park level indicated that there were 135 tigers, he added.
There was a quiz contest for tourists who had come for safari at Antharsanthe wildlife zone.
