DC | M.B. GIRISH | November 19, 2014
Angry villagers stop a vehicle carrying the tiger in Joida town on Tuesday (Photo: DC)
Chikkamagaluru: Has
the Bhadra tiger reserve in Chikkamagaluru seen a rise in numbers of
the big cat owing to its high prey density? Forest officials are hoping
they will have the answer next month when a census of all tiger
reserves in the country will be released.
Says
conservator of forests and director of Bhadra Tiger Reserve,
Venkatesan, “A rough estimate of tiger numbers was done in January but a
clear picture will emerge only after the tiger census is out at the end
of the year.”
The possibility of tiger numbers
rising in Bhadra is real as it has a good number of guars (Indian
bison), offering the big cats a high prey density.” In the mid-eighties,
rinderpest had almost wiped out the guars from Bhadra but new bamboo
plantations and vaccination of cattle in the fringe areas of the tiger
reserve have revived their population,” Mr Venkatesan explains.
It
is currently estimated that the reserve has 17 to 20 tigers in an area
of about 800 square meters, according to former member of the state
wildlife board, Girijashankar. “If there is good prey density and enough
protection, the tiger numbers will naturally rise.
Forest
staff on patrol duty have sighted tigers frequently off late when in
the past such sightings were very rare,” he adds, noting that besides
guars, tigers prey on deer, sambar, barking deer and other animals.
The
forest department has a problem on its hands as the truck carrying the
tiger that mauled a woman labourer to death in Pandaravalli village of
Chikamagalur district, was stopped on arrival in Joida town by angry
villagers Tuesday morning and not allowed to proceed to Dandeli-Anshi
Tiger Reserve where it had planned to release it. Thousands of people gathered in Kulagi and Panasoli villages demanding that the forest officials take the tiger somewhere else.
“We
are spending sleepless nights even now due to attacks from the
elephants and bears from the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve. The release of
the tiger here will only add to our problems.
“We will not withdraw our protest until the officials shift the tiger to another forest,” said Kulagi villager, Arun Mandekar.
Responding
to the concerns, director of the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve,
Srinivasulu held a meeting with the villagers and other organisations
to persuade them to allow the forest department to release the tiger in
the forests here, but they remained adamant.
The
meeting ended with the forest officials assuring the villagers that a
decision on shifting the tiger to another forest would be taken
Wednesday morning, and the truck carrying the tiger was left parked in
Kulagi village bordering the tiger reserve for the time being.
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