Wildlife Institute of India to study tigers in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve

NAGPUR: To know about density, abundance and demographic ratio of tigers, the wildlife wing of the forest department for the first time will implement a research project titled 'Long-term monitoring of tigers, co-predators and prey species in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and adjoining landscapes'.

On June 25, the state government gave its go ahead to the Rs1.64 crore project which will be implemented by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, on 70:30 cost sharing basis between the state government and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The project, submitted by WII tiger scientist Bilal Habib, is for a five-year period and will be intensively implemented in five protected areas (PAs) and its corridors soon.

The PAs include TATR, Navegaon National Park, Nagzira, Bor and Chaprala wildlife sanctuaries. The study, to be conducted in two phases, will include capacity building of local staff for managing man-animal conflict.

"The memorandum of understanding (MoU) is ready and it will sent to the WII this week. Of the Rs1.64 crore, Rs46 lakh will be given by the state while remaining funds will come from the NTCA," said Virendra Tiwari, chief conservator of forests (CCF) & field director, TATR. In a letter to chief wildlife warden SWH Naqvi, the government has authorized field director to sign the MOU.

Tiwari told TOI that TATR landscape is one of the most important landscapes in Central India and is crucial for long-term conservation of tigers in the region. The area has witnessed highest number of conflict cases in the recent past. The study would investigate dynamics of tigers, co-predators and their prey.

TATR has been extensively mapped. Hence, in the first year, mapping of current land-use pattern, infrastructure, mining areas, villages, roads, power transmission lines, demographic profile, livestock population, dispersal corridors, prey and predator occupancy etc in the landscape surrounding TATR will be done.

The first year of the project will evaluate these factors to provide crucial information about surrounding landscape in terms of capability to sustain tiger dispersal or act as corridor for tigers dispersing from TATR.

The WII researchers will also study population density apart from abundance and demographic structure of tigers. Capture-recapture, distance sampling method and spatially explicit approaches will be used to achieve the objective.

"The exercise will be carried out on an annual basis and hence there will be no need to carry the Phase IV exercise to monitor tigers during the duration of the project," officials told TOI.

Officials informed that as part of the exercise, five tigers and as many leopards will be fixed with satellite radio-collars within TATR. Monitoring of village relocation sites will also be done as these will provide the impact of relocation. In TATR, first relocation happened in 1975 followed by 2007 and 2013.

During the entire monitoring programme, two-three such cycles will be carried out. Besides, socio-economic aspects of tiger and leopard conflict and village surveys once in three years will also be conducted. Food habits of tigers and co-predators will also be part of the study.