Three tigers caught on camera in Tillari region

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/36720926.cms

KERI: Maharashtra's forest department says it has used a camera trap technique to study the natural habitat as well as the movements of the big cat in the Tillari reservoir and succesfully captured images of three tigers.

The Tillari region, bordering Goa and Maharashtra, has a water reservoir nestled amidst lush green patches of forest with a thriving population of herbivorous animals favouring visits from carnivorous animals like tigers, leopards and other animals.

Speaking to TOI, B S Shinde, range forest officer, Dodamarg forest range, Maharashtra, said "We got camera trap images of tigers Our authorities have told us to keep the information about the images confidential for the safety and security of the big cats. The tigers are in the region ranging from Chorla ghat in Karnataka and Goa to Kendre of Tillari. They come into this region due to the availability of ample food and water."

Ramesh Kumar, deputy conservator of forests, Sawantwadi division said, "Our officials were successful in securing camera trap images of tigers in the area of the Tillari reservoir. The images indicate the presence of three tigers."

Recently a team of wildlife biologists under the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, supported by Centre for Wildlife Studies called for immediate intervention for protection and conservation of the tigers and other species of wild animals in the landscape spanning 6,000 sq km that is part of the Sahyadri-Konkan corridor.

Tbis area covers the Koyna wildlife sanctuary, Chandoli national park and Radhanagri wildlife sanctuary along with the Tillari region as the rate of landscape modification and fragmentation is breaking forest contiguity and isolating protected areas for the large carnivores, the study found.

Using the same camera-trap method in 2013, through an initiative undertaken by range forest officer Paresh Porob, with a Wildlife Conservation Society-Bangalore (WCS) team, Goa's forest department captured images of a tigress relishing a wild boar in Dongurli inside the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary.

This year, Goa's forest department and WCS installed camera traps, but have not confirmed any results.The WCS team is currently engrossed in a camera trap project in the Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary, Karnataka.

Nice to know that some of these corridors are still intact. The importance of protecting existing wildlife corridors which connect larger sanctuaries cannot be overemphasised. In the longer term it is perhaps the most important conservation startegy towards which there should be greater focus, allocation of resources and political will power than any other. Creating island sanctuaries for protecting large mamals like tigers and elephants is being as myopic as pot planting a banyan tree in your bedroom.... It will only be a matter of time. But then it doesnt look like it is going to be any different for most other species including us.

TFS
Roopak

Any sighting of tigers in a new area is a good news. However it is a fact that tigers will continue to move from one area to another in search of prey and transient tigers will always be on the look out to establish a territory. Radio collaring and airlifting a tiger from one sanctuary to another makes headlines as it is a big and esoteric and glamorous solution. Most of us are guilty of looking for spectacular solutions and ignoring other solutions that are equally or more effective but plain-jane in comparision. Unfortunately, we may pat our backs for the success of a few glamorous solutions, but preserving a landscape, reconnecting its corridors by identifying and acquiring the land is a tedious process which needs much will power and tact. Not many can do it and hence it is relegated to the background. It is better to recreate the corridors so that they live on their own in peace and also it reduces the man-animal conflicts. In this age when anybody and everybody looks to become a celebrity quickly, are there any takers for trudging the hard path?

@Sabyasachi: agree about building the corridors. But its sad to see everyone just wants to grab land. And forest land is cheap.