NGO opposes move to shift tigers from MP to Sariska Reserve

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/flora-fauna/ngo-opposes-move-to-shift-tigers-from-mp-to-sariska-reserve/articleshow/19509050.cms

PTIApr 12, 2013, 12.28PM IST

Tags:

• Sariska Tiger Reserve|
• National Tiger Conservation Authority|
• Jayanti Natrajan

BHOPAL: Protesting the proposed move of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to shift few tigers from Madhya Pradesh to Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan to arrest their dwindling population in the desert state, an NGO working for the conservation of big cats, has requested the Centre to intervene in the matter.

In a letter to Union environment and forest minister Jayanti Natrajan, NGO ‘Prayatna’ highlighted documents sourced through RTI stating that NTCA under some political pressure has instructed the Madhya Pradesh government to shift tigers from the state to Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, terming the move as “very disturbing”.

“We strongly object to the step taken by NTCA and have requested the Union minister for immediate intervention in the matter as Madhya Pradesh not only lost the coveted tiger state status in the last census to Karnataka, but also it was unable to protect its big cats in the wild which resulted in poaching/natural death of 16 tigers including three tigress and two cubs in 2012,” Prayatna secretary, Ajay Dube told PTI.

Dube further informed on the basis of RTI, that acting on the NTCA letter dated March 8, referring to its Technical Committee meeting, dated February 27, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) Wildlife, Dr P K Shukla has requested the NTCA to take an opinion of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradoon on the issue of shifting tigers from Madhya Pradesh to Sariska.

However, Dube said that in the light of state losing 16 tigers in just 2012, the forest authorities should have protested the move.

Instead, they have just requested NTCA to take WII’s opinion on the matter, he said.

 

The Guardian Project – Cee4life INDIA

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https://www.facebook.com/cee4life.org

 

The Guardian Project – Cee4life, INDIA Upload – Apr 2, 2013

Tiger Threats – Guardian Project, INDIA – Monsoon season is a dangerous time of the year for the Bengal Tigers. The national parks are closed, and some parks cut off from allowing tiger protection patrols and forest officials to enter them. However, poachers have taken full advantage of the lack of protection presence. One horrendous account in 2004, in monsoon season, every single tiger was poached out of Sariska. I visited one of the monsoon effected national parks in India, Jhirna. Please join Cee4life as we start the Guardian Project April 21st 2013. Also, youre invited to join us at Guardian Project, Cee4life page at http://www.facebook.com/GuardianProjectCee4life?fref=ts This is what mild monsoon looks like. ~ Sybelle

 

Plea to shift two tigress sisters from Ranthambhore to Sariska Reserve

 JAIPUR, January 11, 2013

http://www.thehindu.com

Sundari with her cubs at Thamba Khan in Ranthambhore National Park. This was clicked by Rajasthan Forest & Environment Minister Bina Kak. — Photo: Special Arrangement

The Rajasthan Government’s Forest & Environment Department has submitted a proposal to the National Tiger Conservation Authority for relocation of two tigress sisters from Ranthambhore National Park to Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar district in view of the big cats being unable to mark their territories after their mother’s death.

The two tigresses, now aged two years each, were orphaned when their mother, T-5, died after a fight with another tigress in Kachida area of Ranthambhore. The cubs, artificially fed for some time, have many times strayed near human habitations, giving rise to fears that they may come into conflict with humans.

The felines have been named Bina-1 and Bina-2 after State Forest & Environment Minister Bina Kak. It was Ms. Kak who had spotted their injured mother and arranged for her veterinary care. The T-5 tigress succumbed to her injured in February 2011 despite treatment.

The forest staff took special care of the orphaned cubs for some time and released them into the wild when they became healthy. The tigress sisters, used to the human presence around them, often leave signs of their visit near the human habitations.

“The threat of their conflict with the people living on the edges of the national park is real. Two days ago when I stayed at a place on Ranthambhore Road, I heard tiger roars in the night and found pugmarks on the ground [next] morning,” Ms. Kak told The Hindu here on Thursday.

As such, the Forest Department is planning to relocate three tigers to Sariska under a recovery plan for the tiger habitat, which lost all of its big cats to alleged poaching during 2004-05. Six tigers have been reintroduced in Sariska during the past four years.

The actively breeding big cat population in Ranthambhore is the obvious choice for the wild animal’s transfer. Ms. Kak said the wildlife officials were closely monitoring the movements of male tiger T-24, which has attacked local villagers and forest officials several times. The latest victim was forester Gheesu Singh, who was mauled and dragged into the bushes by T-24 in October.

Ms. Kak said the forest authorities were in a dilemma about T-24, as it is considered to be the father of two cubs, Sultan and Noor, whom it is shielding from the wildlife rigours: “If we take away the tiger, the cubs will be left without protection.”

Another tigress, Sundari – officially named T-17 – seems to have shifted its territory away from Padam Talab and Rajbagh Talab, leaving these areas vacant. The tigress had recently injured her leg in a fight with a male tiger.

The Minister said the increasing tiger population in Ranthambhore had made it imperative to utilise the adjoining Kailadevi National Park by creating a corridor and ensuring smooth movement of the big cats between the two forests. This will provide more space to tigers and help them gain control over their own territories.

“If this plan succeeds, we may not require tiger relocation on a big scale,” said Ms. Kak. The area of Kailadevi, which falls under the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, is at present devoid of tiger population.

 

Team of Volunteers Required for Tiger Reintroduction Projects in WII

Indian Wildlife Club Ezine (December, 2012)

http://www.indianwildlifeclub.com

“Team of Volunteers Required for Tiger Reintroduction Projects in WII

Posted By:kramesh_wii in yahoo group

Work Description: The project involves monitoring and evaluation of reproductive potential of reintroduced tiger populations in Sariska (Rajasthan) and Panna (Madhya Pradesh) Tiger Reserves.  Data collection include radio-tracking of

tiger, camera trapping of tiger and co-predators, line transect for estimating prey density, plot sampling for quantification of vegetation and anthropogenic parameters, and scat collection for quantification of hormones and DNA.

Area: The study is primarily executed in Panna and Sariska Tiger Reserve have been reintroduced, but data collection would also be done in Ranthambore, Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserves which are the source for the reintroduced tiger populations.

Duration: Three-Four Months (10th January 2013 onwards) and extendable depending on the performance of candidates.

Requirements: The applicant must hold at least a bachelor’s degree, with interest in wildlife science and conservation. Candidates with a prior experience of carrying out field data collection as mentioned above would be given preference.

Compensation & Benefits: The selected candidates will be provided with travel and lodging support during the work period. In addition, some emolument will also be given for meeting other basic requirements.  Interested candidates are required to respond through email to manjari.malviya@gmail.com with a copy to ramesh@wii.gov.in

The email should include CV, Statement of Interest and duration of commitment. The closing date for receiving application is 05 January 13. However, it is encouraged to send in the application sooner, so that the field work opportunity could be advanced.”

 

Excellent initiative to Sariska. It was decided to carry out night patrols. 5 teams were formed for this purpose.

 Planète Tigre

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Plan%C3%A8te-Tigre/131742830190805

 

Excellent initiative to Sariska. It was decided to carry out night patrols. 5 teams were formed for this purpose. These guards will operate on five areas patrolling sixty circuits. On the other hand, villagers were approached to serve as indicators to the police (working with Belinda Wright and Planet Tiger). A bonus will be given for good information on poachers.

 

Now, tigers to be assigned UIDs

By Krishnendu Mukherjee, TNN | Dec 4, 2012, 01.13 AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Now-tigers-to-be-assigned-UIDs/articleshow/17470236.cms

READ MORE National Tiger Conservation Authority|conservationist|Belinda Wright|UID|NTCA

KOLKATA: Getting a UID is no longer just a unique human right. Tigers can have it too.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) issued a guideline on Monday, proposing to assign a unique identification (UID) number to each tiger captured through camera traps. The NTCA wants to create a national repository of camera-trap photographs of tigers, and the UIDs will help cut out duplication and give the big cats an exact headcount. Tigers in the Sunderbans, for instance, will have the prefix ‘Su’ before a number while those in the northeast hills will have ‘NE’. Tigers are identified on the basis of stripe patterns obtained through the camera trap images.

The Ranthambore tigers are likely to be the first to get UIDs, officials said.

NTCA deputy inspector general S P Yadav said the aim was to identify all tigers across India. “Each tiger will have its own UID number. Once the tiger dies, the UID will be closed. Even if the tiger crosses over to another state or country through a contiguous border, like what the Indian Sunderbans shares with Bangladesh, the tiger can be recognized through the UID,” Yadav said.

Tiger reserves will prepare detailed camera trap records. “The entire exercise will take place under the leadership of the chief wildlife wardens. Apart from photographs of tigers, the data will have details lik, trap location, date, time, beats and ranges where the tiger was photo captured, the camera ID and memory ID,” the NTCA guidelines say.

“Each state will then send the details to the NTCA, which will select and scrutinize the photos before entering camera trap data and associated images into the main database along with other details. A software programme, ExtractCompare, will be used to match the camera-trap data with the visuals to assign unique IDs to the tigers,” said an NTCA official.

Yadav said the unique IDs will be linked to the areas where the tigers originally belong. “In India, there are six landscapes where tigers are found – Central India, Eastern Ghats, northeast hills and Brahmaputra flood plains, Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains, Sunderbans, and Western Ghats. The UID for a Sunderbans tiger will always start with a code, SU. These IDs will be assigned to landscapes and not to states since tigers often move across state boundaries,” said Yadav. The trap location will give the code of the site where a tiger originally belongs.

Conservationist Belinda Wright hailed the decision, but cautioned that “the information should be managed very carefully”.

 

Tiger relocation to Sariska on anvil

READ MORE National Tiger Conservation Authority|Sariska Tiger Reserve|Ranthambhore National Park|Deshbandhu Vaid

By Rachna Singh, TNN | Nov 11, 2012, 02.57 AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Tiger-relocation-to-Sariska-on-anvil/articleshow/17175777.cms

Orphaned cubs which are likely to be relocated.

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JAIPUR: The Ranthambhore National Park (RNP) is facing the problem of plenty. In a bid to save tigers and avoid man-animal conflict, the forest department officials plan to relocate two tigers to the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) – Bina I and Bina II. The two orphaned cubs, of T5 of Kachida, created history by being taken care of by their father T 28.

“The tigers are growing and need their own territory. At the moment they are living on the periphery and often stray into the villages and urban areas. Recently, they killed a domestic animal. We have written to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) requesting permission to shift these tigers and plan to shift them as soon as we get permission,” said AC Chaubey, chief wildlife warden. This would take the tiger population in STR to seven.

The twenty-three-month-old female cubs, Bina-I and Bina-II, are known to stray out even in the nearby resorts – Sher Bagh, Khem Vilas and Aman Bagh. “Tiger population in RNP is bursting at its seams and the tigers need space. At the moment there are 27 adult tigers and 26 cubs in the 600 sq km area of the park. Six to seven tigers can easily be re-located either to Kaila Devi Sanctuary or SNP to ease out the situation in the park,” said Deshbandhu Vaid secretary of the NGO Sanrakshan.

At the moment, the entire tiger concentration is in 600 sq. km creating stress for growing cubs to carve out their territory. “Kaila Devi National Park is part of the project tiger and is a buffer zone to RNP. Spread over 674 sq. km, it does not have a single tiger. Despite talks for two decades, the area has not been developed and is still not receptive to housing a tiger. Several times Mohan (T-47) has strayed in Kaila Devi but has returned to RNP,” said Deshbandhu.

According to experts, if Kaila Devi is developed properly, this would make it easier for the tigers to stray out of RNP to the forest areas. What plagues the park is immense human intervention and poor prey base. “There is a natural movement of tigers to Kaila Devi, but it’s difficult for them to stay there. To help ease out stress in RNP, the government needs to look at reducing human disturbance and introducing certain prey species in Kaila Devi,” said Balendu Singh, honorary wildlife warden.

 

Sariska plans to get 3 more tigers as translocation gifts park 2 cubs

Monday, 15 October 2012 00:18

Lokpal Sethi | Jaipur

http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/101704-sariska-plans-to-get-3-more-tigers-as-translocation-gifts-park-2-cubs.html

Spread over 866 sqkm, the Sariska National Park in Rajasthan was once home to 15 tigers. Poaching reduced the number to zero till re-population began with the shifting of five tigers from another park.

Now, three more of the big cats are to be relocated to increase their number to eight, an official said.

Enthused by the birth of two cubs in the Phase I of the tiger translocation project, the State Forest Department officials are busy giving final touches to Phase II of translocating three more tigers to the Sariska Tiger Reserve.

According to VS Singh, additional chief secretary, environment and forest, officials of the forest department had already held rounds of meeting with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to apprise them of the plan to seek their help.

One tiger would be shifted from Ranthambore National Park and the other two would be relocated from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Talks with the concerned officials of these two States are going to identify the big cats, says AC Choubey, chief wildlife warden of the State.

According to officials, the tigress that will be brought from Ranthambore has already been identified. From MP and Maharashtra, one male and one female tiger would be shifted to Sariska, taking the total number of big cats in this tiger reserve in Alwar district to eight. Since 2008, six big cats wereshifted from Ranthambore to this tiger reserve, from where tigers had disappeared largely due topoaching. The hopes to rehabilitate the forest with tigers remained shattered for nearly four years.

Officials had hoped that the relocated tigers would make this forest their home and give birth to cubs. But this did not happen.

 

In June 2008, a male tiger ST1 was brought to Sariska. In November 2010, ST1 was poisoned by villagers, which brought down the number of relocated tigers to five.

Inspired by Rajasthan, forest officials in MP shifted tigers to the Panna Reserve. But unlike Sariska, the relocated tigers in Panna did not disappoint conservation experts and gave birth to numerous cubs.

Some tiger experts had questioned the wisdom of forest officials of Rajasthan for shifting tigers only from Ranthambore. They argued that since tigers brought here from Ranthambore genetically belonged to one family, chances of their mating and giving birth to cubs were remote.

During all these years, while forest officials in Sariska had seen tigers breed, no new guest had arrived in the forest.

 

Sariska reserve gets tiger number 007

 

Rajendra Sharma, TNN | Oct 1, 2012, 01.38AM IST

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Read more:Tigress ST-2|tiger number|Sariska Tiger Reserve|Kalikhoh area|007

ALWAR: There is a new addition to her majesty’s secret brood at Sariska tiger reserve and he’s tiger number 007. Tigress ST-2, which was found with a cub on August 7, was spotted with yet another cub at Kalikhoh area of the reserve during the wee hours. The tiger relocation process at Sariska reserve, which began in 2008, continues to reap rewards and the new cub seems to be the latest result of the experiment.

In fact, on August 7, the authorities had anticipated that the number of cubs could be more than one. The total number of tigers in the reserve is now seven, including five adult tigers, out of which three are females.

“Tigress ST-2 and her two cubs were spotted in a camera trap installed in the forests at 3.56am on Sunday,” said a wildlife official.

Spotting of the two cubs together has doubled the celebrations of wildlife week starting from Monday. In the morning, forest guards and officials distributed sweets after their speculation on the number of cubs turned out to be fact.

“These cubs appear to be of six to seven months old. By the age of 1, they will learn hunting from their mother,” said an official. Spotting of the first cub of ST-2 on August 7 was the most celebrated moment of the reserve ever since airlifting of the big cats from Ranthambore to Sariska began in 2008.

ST-2 is the second big cat, and the first tigress, shifted to Sariska on July 4, 2008, from Ranthambore National Park. The first relocated tiger, ST-1, was poisoned to death in November 2010. The villagers, whose cattle graze in reserve, reportedly killed ST-1 after it attacked animals. She was flown by an IAF helicopter from Ranthambore to Sariska. Thereafter, two more tigresses were introduced — in February 2009 and July 2010. There are two males in the reserve now.

 

Sanctuaries reopening on October 1 … SC verdict awaited

 ROARrrrr for Jungle Tiger

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ROARrrrr-for-Jungle-Tiger/166490116742359

Officials, wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists are waiting with bated breath for Thursday’s Supreme Court verdict on tourism in the core of areas of wildlife sanctuaries. With

just three days to go for the Ranthambore and Sariska national parks to re-open (October 1), this would chart the way for the two thriving tiger reserves in the state.

The Centre on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court requesting that the ban on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves be lifted. In the affidavit, the Centre has outlined the revised guidelines to protect the tiger population and requested the court to permit tourism activities in 20% of the core tiger habitat. The guidelines also seek phasing out of permanent tourist facilities located inside the core areas of the reserve in a specified time frame.

Facing pressure from the states, the Centre had moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to revise the guidelines and the court gave permission. The Supreme Court will take up the issue on September 27.