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BI-MONTHLY OUTREACH JOURNAL OF NATIONAL TIGER CONSERVATION AUTHORITY

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Volume 3 Issue 6 Sept-Oct 2012

Core & critical tiger habitats of tiger reserves, notifiedunder Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006

RESERVE STATE AREA OF CORE/CRITICALTIGER HABITAT (in sqkm)

Bandipur Karnataka 872.24Corbett Uttarakhand 821.99Kanha Madhya Pradesh 917.43Manas Assam 840.04Melghat Maharashtra 1500.49Palamau Jharkhand 414.08Ranthambhore Rajasthan 1113.364Similipal Odisha 1194.75Sunderbans West Bengal 1699.62Periyar Kerala 881.00Sariska Rajasthan 881.1124Buxa West Bengal 390.5813Indravati Chhattisgarh 1258.37Nagarjunasagar Andhra Pradesh 3721.00Namdapha Arunachal Pradesh 1807.82Dudhwa Uttar Pradesh 1093.79Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tamil Nadu 895.00Valmiki Bihar 598.45Pench Madhya Pradesh 411.33Tadoba-Andhari Maharashtra 625.82Bandhavgarh Madhya Pradesh 716.903Panna Madhya Pradesh 576.13Dampa Mizoram 500.00Bhadra Karnataka 492.46Pench Maharashtra 257.26Pakke Arunachal Pradesh 683.45Nameri Assam 200.00Satpura Madhya Pradesh 1339.264Anamalai Tamil Nadu 958.59Udanti-Sitanadi Chhattisgarh 851.09Satkosia Odisha 523.61Kaziranga Assam 625.58Achanakmar Chhattisgarh 626.195Dandeli-Anshi Karnataka 814.884Sanjay-Dubri Madhya Pradesh 812.571Mudumalai Tamil Nadu 321.00Nagarahole Karnataka 643.35Parambikulam Kerala 390.89Sahyadri Maharashtra 600.12BRT Karnataka 359.10Kawal Andhra Pradesh 893.23

TOTAL 35123.9547

WILD caught tigers have been success-fully released in the wild, and this initia-tive is the first of its kind in the worldwhere India has taken the lead. In bothSariska as well as Panna, where this wasdone, the results are encouraging. Based

on a recovery strategy planned in collaboration with theWildlife Institute of India and the state of Rajasthan,wild tigers were reintroduced from Ranthambhore toSariska. One of the reintroduced tigresses has bred andtwo cubs have been photo captured. The technical mon-itoring in Sariska using radio telemetry is providingvaluable insights regarding the spatial occupancy pat-terns of tigers and their internecine behaviour. Thisissue carries an interesting write-up on Sariska tigers.

Namdapha in Arunachal is one of our old tigerreserves constituted in 1982-83, encompassing alarge core area of 1807.82 sq km., with a buffer of245 sq km. The NTCA is striving hard in collaborationwith the state to address several issues includingpoaching, dependence of local community on the

habitat and relocation. An appraisal report from anNTCA independent team is contained in this issue.

The MoEF through the NTCA/Project Tiger has for-mulated a set of comprehensive guidelines for ProjectTiger and tourism in tiger reserves to foster conserva-tion and tourism in a mutually compatible manner. Thesalient features of these guidelines are highlighted.

An interesting side event on tiger conservationwas organized by the NTCA, Wildlife Institute ofIndia, Global Tiger Forum and WWF-India onOctober 17, 2012, which was inaugurated by theHon’ble minister for environment and forests.

A meeting of the sub-group on tiger and leopardconservation between India and Russia, under theintergovernmental commission on Trade, Economic,Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation tookplace in Moscow on 17-18 September, 2012. A reporton this meeting is highlighted in this issue.

Dr Rajesh Gopal Member-Secretary, NTCA

EDITOR Dr Rajesh Gopal

EXECUTIVE EDITOR S P Yadav

CONTENTCOORDINATORInder MS Kathuria

FEEDBACK Annexe No 5 Bikaner HouseShahjahan Road New Delhi

stripes.ntca@gmail.com

Cover photo S P Yadav

n o t e f r o m t h e e d i t o r

Volume 3Issue 6

Sept-Oct2012

SariskaThe mostambitiousconservationproject everPg 4

AchievementsBiodiversity & tiger conservationP15

Indo-Russiameet

Leopard & tiger

conservationPg16

GuidelinesStrategy for tourismin tigerreservesPg 10

NamdaphaAppraisal of the TigerReservePg 16

BI-MONTHLY OUTREACH JOURNAL OF NATIONAL TIGER CONSERVATION AUTHORITY

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

4 | Sept-Oct 2012 | STRIPES

Sariska Tiger Reserve, the onename which was questionedby all, the one name which

was belittled by the media, theone name which stirred so muchnegativity due to its loss of themost magnificent clan of thePanthera tigris tigris in 2005 hasfinally unfolded its bounty!!!

Sariska undoubtedly has

always had a significant positionin the Indian semi-arid ecosys-tem with potential habitats andvery high densities of tiger preybase. The year 2008 created his-tory as India attempted its first“reintroduction strategy of largecarnivore” by planning andimplementation of tiger reintro-duction in Sariska from the

neighbouring semi-arid tract ofRanthambhore Tiger Reserve.

Based on the scientific ‘SpeciesRecovery Plan’ and the ‘TigerReintroduction Protocol’ pre-pared by the Wildlife Institute ofIndia (WII), Dehra Dun, RajasthanForest Department (RFD) andNational Conservation Authority(NTCA), two adult tigers (ST1, a

Sariska:TheReign of Tigers

K Sankar & Subhadeep Bhattacharjee, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun

STRIPES | Sept-Oct 2012 | 5

male, and ST2, a female) werebrought to Sariska in June 2008.Both the Tigers were first chemi-cally immobilized and thenradio-collared in Ranthambhore.Finally they were airlifted in theIndian Air force MI-17 helicoptersand introduced into the majesticforest of Sariska. In Sariska theywere released inside a carnivoreproof one hectare enclosure,which was enriched with a natu-ral vegetation cover and ade-quate water holes. This processis known as “soft release” and ithelped to monitor their physio-logical and behavioral responsein the new environment. No onehad any speculation regardingthe post-introduction behavior ofthe tigers as this had never beentried before. After three to fourdays of critical observationsfrom a camouflaged watch tower,the individuals were releasedinto the wild. Continuous moni-toring was carried out with thejoint effort of the RFD personneland WII research team from thevery moment the tigers werereleased into the wild.

After being released in thewild, the tigers started exploringthe areas of Sariska. The malestrolled in the southern partwhere as the female movedtowards the northern part ofSariska. In the first two monthsthey covered a significantly largearea of around 350 sqkm. Thencame the twist!! These two tigersmet during the third month andstayed together in a smaller areaof about 30 sqkm for nearly amonth. Since then they wereoften spotted together andremained in association for different time intervals.

In February 2009 anotherfemale (ST3) was brought fromRanthambhore to Sariska, by fol-lowing similar protocol. She tooafter being released in the wildwent on to explore a vast area of225 sqkm in Sariska. In April2009 the tigress (ST3) was seenassociating with the male (ST1) in

a relocated village site, Bhagani,in Sariska. Thereafter she got set-tled in that area and formed herhome range of around 40 sqkm.The male had a larger homerange covering the two females(ST2 and ST3).

In 2010 July, two more tigers(a male – ST4 and a female – ST5)were reintroduced in Sariskafrom Ranthambhore aiming tocomplete the initial stock of thepopulation according to thespecies recovery plan. ST4, soonafter his release in the wildmoved towards the south eastern

part of the Sariska and in severaloccasions drifted out of thereserve to find himself in thevicinity of township of Rajgarh.This might have been due to theterritorial dominance of the firstmale ST1. While ST4 was givingthe Sariska administration andthe research team a tough timewith the task of tracking hismovements, the ST5 tigress fol-lowed a similar exploratory routeas that of the ST2 tigress andmoved towards the northernparts of Sariska, crossing twostate highways simultaneously.

But after roaming in the north-ernmost areas of the reserve withless wild prey abundance andmore human disturbance, she

came back to the best availablehabitat and started establishingher territory in the eastern partof the reserve.

While the Sariska managementand the WII research team weremeticulously striving to trackdown the male tiger ST4 in theterritorial forest areas of Rajgarhrange of Alwar division, the firstever reintroduced male ST1 wasshockingly found dead due tofeeding on a poisoned buffalo killinside the Sariska Tiger Reserveat Kalakhet area in November2010. Subsequent to the death ofST1, ST4 found its way back tothe reserve and started occupyingthe same areas which had beenutilized by ST1 for almost two-and-a-half years. ST4 wasobserved to even develop newassociations with all the threefemales (ST2, ST3 and ST5) withina month and covered the entirehome ranges of all three females.

In February 2011, a male tiger(T-07) dispersed fromRanthambhore and moved almost250 km to Mathura in UttarPradesh and backtracked, finallysettled in a tiny bird sanctuary ofBharatpur (Keoladeo NationalPark). This tiger was translocatedto Sariska. This male tiger(renamed as ST6 in Sariska) soonafter his release in the wild wasobserved to get himself associat-ed with ST3 (female) in the southwestern part of the TigerReserve. The other male tiger ST4was also observed to reduce histerritory providing space to thisnew male and kept his associa-tion with the other two females(ST2 and ST5) (Fig. 4). In occa-sional events we observed thefemales (ST2 and ST3) to engagethem in new associations withboth the males (ST6 and ST4respectively).

But dark clouds seemed to con-tinuously hover above Sariskaand every soul associated withSariska and this project silentlyprayed for a silver lining!! Now it

APPRAISAL

Jubilation engulfedSariska when the firstreintroduced femaleST2 was seen withsymptoms of lactation in June2012. On August 7,we captured the photograph of thistigress with a cubthrough a cameratrap deployed in herterritory, near Slopka

6 | Sept-Oct 2012 | STRIPES

was almost four years and nobirth of offspring was observedin Sariska, whereas a similar rein-troduction project carried out inPanna Tiger Reserve, MadhyaPradesh, which was initiatedafter Sariska, became successfulwith the birth of tiger cubs with-in a year’s time.

Experts in the field of wildlifemanagement and researchengaged themselves in scrutiniz-ing the project to find out theexact reason behind theunfavourable conditions for thearrival of tiger cubs in Sariska.

Issues of human disturbancessuch as heavy traffic in state highways within the reserve, the presence of villages, humanand domestic livestock activitiesin the core areas of the reservewere speculated as the major rea-sons, where as the presence ofradio collars on the tigers werealso raised as an issue by some experts.

Jubilation engulfed Sariskawhen the first reintroducedfemale ST2 was photographedwith symptoms of lactation inJune 2012. Mother Natureseemed to rejoice as on August 7,2012, in Sariska, when we cap-tured the photograph of this

tigress with a cub through a cam-era trap deployed in her territo-ry, near Slopka. The birth of thiscub in the lap of Sariska signifiedthe grand success of this first-ever tiger reintroduction projectundertaken by the finest wildlifeexperts of our country and there-by engraving the name of Indiaon the milestone marking a new

era of global wildlife manage-ment and research.

Let’s hope to see these magnifi-cent beasts establish their pres-ence deep in the heart of Sariska.The next time you plan a trip toSariska, we sincerely hope thatyou will sight the “striped fur”proudly strolling through this for-est accompanied by their cubs.

(Above & below) Camera trap photographs of the Sariska tiger cubs