NSTR is alive and kicking

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2211394.ece

The above link shows a camera trap capture of a tigress and 3 cubs on a buffalo kill in the Nagarjunsagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR).

India's largest Tiger reserve was in a sorry state till a few years ago with considerable presence of extremists which prevented conservation efforts in the sanctuary. The presence of the Srisailam Temple inside the park which sees a huge influx of people from all over the state only added to the pressure on the forest. The tiger numbers plummetted from around 90 in the early 90s to 30 in a matter of 6-7 years. Many tiger experts had given up on the reserve and had actually recommended for it to be stripped of its National Park status. It would have been a tragedy for tiger conservation in the country.

But things have improved in the last 3-4 years thanks to the park management, who have formulated and implemented many initiatives including inducting of the local Chenchu tribesmen as forest department staff which provided viable employment opportunities to them. The naxals have been negotiated with and they have almost completely moved away from there. Cattle kills by tigers are frequent because of the presence of umpteen number of villages in and around the park, but a quick compensation system for every kill has kept the owners satisfied.

The park has since seen its tiger numbers grow to more than 70 with a healthy male-female-cubs ratio.

I happened to vist the park in April this year where we spent three days including a one night camping in the forest. This was with the permission of the Field Dierctor whose retinue was present with us. It was a great experience of living for a whole day completely cut off from civilisation, cooking our food in the jungle, using water from the jungle stream when we ran out of our supply, and sleeping under tents.
We went tracking for tigers at 11 PM in a couple of jeeps with searchlights to help when we were on ground. We checked and set up a few camera traps, followed a sambhar alarm call but had no luck with tiger sighting.

But surprise surprise on a walk early in the morning we discovered tiger pug marks and spoor which was estinated by a tracker who accompanied us to be about a few hours old. And this was only about 50 metres from where we were sleeping the previous night! The tiger came upto there and noticed people closeby and just went back on its path.There were also leopard pug marks and scat hadly 10 metres from the tiger's marks and were as recent.

This experience in NSTR will always be memorable and the fact that the park is thriving is good news for the conservation community.

Good to hear first hand information about Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve. In terms of area it used to be one of the largest tiger reserves in the country. Unfortunately, a part of it was dereserved.

There was also talk of creating a memorial for YSR at the place where his hellicopter had crashed. Fortunately, Jagan Mohan Reddy group is not in power. I hear that in the buffer area, they had plans to construct a memorial. Any information on that?

In a number of sanctuaries and tiger reserves, I find human interventions (even by the forest department) has created problems. Leaving the area inviolate will help in nature applying its magic balm and the forests and wildlife bounce back.

Thanks for the information Prashant!

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Many thanks for updates from Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve.....

Ravindra Yadav



[QUOTE=Prashanth Gokul Dwarapu;35004]http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2211394.ece

The above link shows a camera trap capture of a tigress and 3 cubs on a buffalo kill in the Nagarjunsagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR).

Sabyasachi Ji,
As they have de-reserved some parts of NSTR, & it is no longer largest TR. So this title goes to which one? Sundarban or Namdhapa ?

Ravindra Yadav

Sabyasachi

Fortunately, the then Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh had denied permission for constructing a memorial in the area, and later on, Jagan himself realised (or the newspapers reported so) that it wasn't fair to disturb the habitat and did not pursue the idea :)

Going by Official Project Tiger figures, NSTR is still the largest Tiger Reserve and that too by some margin - the total area of the core is 2527 sqkm while the second largest - Namdapha is 1807 sqkm followed by Sunderbans at 1699.

The present area is after about 1000 sqkm was delisted from the core area. But the good news is that the Gundla Brahmeshwaram (GBM) wildlife Sanctuary which is contiguous with NSTR would be added to it. This would add about 1100 sq km to the reserve. This was confirmed by the FD of NSTR during our visit.

These figures show that there is quite a potential to hold a bigger population of tigers with a healthy corridor to handle any spillovers.

As for the hare-brained scheme of erecting a YSR memorial inside the reserve, it has been put away but I am not sure for how long. We should definitely raise our voices if any recurrence of that appears to take shape.

Hello all,
I was not aware that a significant part of NTSR core area was derserved. Any information on why this was done?
Was it to accommodate the Srisailam Left Branch Canal project, the underground tunnel that is to take waters from the Srisailam reservoir to Dindi reservoir outside the reserve to irrigate the nearby districts?
Three of us, myself and two other friends had in late 1980s opposed this project and luckily for us our petition about the project and the reasons why it should not be allowed actually landed on the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's table. To cut a long story short, after some back and forthing between the central and state governments and some information we gave to the then environment minister Bhajan Lal, the environmental clearance for the project was scrapped.
Of course, I am aware that the SLBC project is now back on stream again and that the Centre has given its clearances for it.
If anyone can access the environmental impact report for the project, it should show that the tunnel project is unsound. There are issues of transporting of the tens of thousands of tons or rock carved out for the tunnel which is some 31 km long and according to my old data, a large portion of it was under the then core area of the reserve. We had objected to the fact the EIA did not show the forest land required for the access roads to clear the dug out stone (the old project had plans to drill 1.5 metre chutes every 1.5 km along the tunnel alignment to lift the rock). That old report had no mention of the land required for the roads, the disturbance it would cause to the ecosystem. At that point of time, there was also no clear idea as to where the all the rock would be disposed off, some in the irrigation department even mooted dumping it into the reservoir! Or equally worse, spread it all over the forest which would have killed all undergrowth effectively.
I would really appreciate if anyone has any information on the progress of SLBC project and also the latest tiger and leopard numbers in the NTSR reserve.
My involvement with the reserve did not stop at managing to halt the SLBC project for nearly two decades and kind of give the forest an extended lease of life. I am aware of the ecological disturbances there in the form of annual cattle migration and so on, issues which I had reported quite extensively as a journalist.
I also took part in the tiger census in the reserve for nearly a decade (when the old pug mark system was followed) and have travelled over much of the reserve and spent many days in it.
That is about my ties to the NTSR reserve and I will really appreciate any information on the tiger/leopard numbers there and about SLBC.
Thank you
Balu

Number of Tigers in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve:
Area :3159 sq.km
Range (nos.) :53-66
Mid-Point (nos.) :60
Source :NTCA,Status of Tigers,Co-predators and Prey in India, 2010
Srisailam has been showing increase in population after insurgency is controlled in that area.SaktiWild