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.