Wild Boar, sturdy like a Rhino - In NSTR

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Nikon P510, 1/100, F4.8, 54 mm, ISO-400, cropped for presentation only.
Clicked in NSTR on 30-Jun-14, while coming back from pilgrimage trip to Srisailam. It was busy feeding is broad daylight. NSTR abounds in wild boars, Chitals, hares, Sambars etc. I am not sure of carnivores, i haven’t seen one till date and suspect that the no. of tiger claimed by apfd might be a hoodwink. NSTR is constantly being eaten way at the periphery and at the center around Dam and Temple area and along the roads. Whatever is left is due to the difficult terrain and infertile rocky soil.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Remarkable specimen. Lovely habitat image. Nice eye contact and upper tushes of the male.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice sighting of a big male. Good you got the eye in clear through the leaves. Nice display of the habitat. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Bulky fellow. Good that you could get the eye in the clear. Most of the carnivores and large herbivores become nocturnal when there is anthropogenic pressures including poaching. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice to see a boar from NSTR ....agree with comments above .
Tfs
Roopak

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Dear Saktida, Mrudul, Sabya and Roopak; Thanks for your appreciation and feedback.

Dear Sabya sir, there are some good news in NSTR;
1) The sighting of cheetal, Boar and Sāmbhar during the day & dusk have increased manifolds, in last 6 months, in fact I am now finding it harder to see them in night . NSTR is bulging with Cheetal population
2) There are some good measures taken by Forest department in recent months; not sure due to higher ups in center from whole NSTR or due to the initiative of new Telangana government for it’s portion of NSTR. I need to write a separate post about it and its impact. E,g, there is diligent patrolling, I too have been caught couple of times and I was happy about it (though I am in risk of losing my prowl areas inside the forest).

Bad news:
1) Nobody knows how many tigers are actually there, in the last census it was estimated (guessed) at about 60. The figure that I hear from forest people vary from 6 to 46.
2) Forest Land encroachment to build temples and kuchcha road to them is going on around the Srisailam town.

At the last, you need to spread your wings over NSTR. It is an enormous bi-diversity sphere which is in the blind spot of ecology sentinels.