After Mhadei find, tiger expert on big cat trail in Cotigao

TNN | May 8, 2013
PANAJI: A team of experts led by noted conservation zoologist Kota Ullas Karanth has commenced work on a comprehensive tiger survey in the Cotigao wildlife sanctuary and other protected areas after the recent success of the camera trap method.

The Goa government had recently cleared the decks for an intensive survey and within a few weeks of the go-ahead the forest department had captured a tigress on camera within the limits of the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.

The extensive study, which will extend for four years till 2017, will rely on refined protocols such as camera trap findings to assess the presence of the big cat and the prey base in Goa's forests.

"He (Karanth) has given a list of 45 spots in different sanctuaries to lay camera traps and line transects for the survey," said Richard D'Souza, principal chief conservator of forests. While the expert will conduct the study, the forest department will also independently do its work, especially in Mhadei.

The protected areas of Cotigao, Neturlim, Molem national park, Bondla and Mhadei form a contiguous corridor with tiger areas in Karnataka.

The tiger estimation done by the forest department in the past has shown the presence of tigers. Three had been counted in 1993, five in 1997 and 2002.

Though the forest department had been in a denial syndrome for a long time earlier, things have changed recently with significant findings.

"This vindicates the stand taken by some officials and animal lovers who have claimed the big cats' existence here for more than a decade and a half," a source said.

Referring to the work being done in the protected areas over the last few days D'Souza said, "This is the actual groundwork for the survey."

Goa's protected areas have been identified as a tiger conservation unit (TCU) along with the contiguous forest areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra in a study by international organizations.

The World Wide Fund International, US Fish and Wildlife Services and Wild Life Conservation Society, New York, in a study had categorized the Western Ghats as the second best tiger habitat in India after the Sunderbans in West Bengal.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/After-Mhadei-find-tiger-expert-on-big-cat-trail-in-Cotigao/articleshow/19942067.cms

The problem with releasing ‘problem’ tigers back in forest

P. VENUGOPAL

Tigress released in Karnataka 71 days ago trapped again in Wayanad last week

Photo-matching done at the Centre for Wildlife Studies - India (CWS) in Bangalore now shows that the tiger trapped in Wayanad this Saturday is a ‘problem tiger’ that had created a conflict situation at a place called Nalkeri on the boundary of the Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka just 71 days ago.

The finding points to need for a re-examination of the capture-release practice followed by the conservation officials in dealing with ‘problem tigers’ that stray into human habitations and cause conflict situations.

This tiger was captured in a box trap by the Karnataka Forest officials on November 23 after two cattle-killing incidents on November 20 and 21 in Nalkeri village outside the western boundary of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, according to conservation zoologist and director of CWS - India Programme, K. Ullas Karanth.

It was an injured tiger and, after treatment at the Mysore zoo, was released by late evening on the same day near a place called Hidagalapanchi in Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The place of release is less than 10 km, as the crow flies, from the adjoining Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala.

Dr. Karanth told The Hindu that the CWS had searched its database containing the stripe patterns of over 600 individually identifiable tigers surviving in the Malanad-Mysore landscape — a database that contains camera-trap pictures gathered over the years from the region — and found the match for the stripe pattern of the tiger captured this Saturday in Wayanad from a conflict situation.

The study showed that this tiger—a tigress, in fact—is the same one that was repeatedly captured by camera-traps and even two wildlife photographers during the period from 2007 to 2012 from a particular area in Nagarahole National Park. It was pushed out of this area, which apparently was its home range, due to unknown reasons that could include inability to retain the home range in the face of competition. It started straying into the human habitations outside Nagarahole in November 2012, to be trapped by the Karnataka Forest officials. It returned once again to human settlements in neighbouring Kerala after being released in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Apparently, the animal could not hunt and survive.

Poor condition

In a report to the Forest Department on Monday, Dr. Karanth and his associates N. Samba Kumar and Narendra Patil said the tigress, now in Thrissur zoo, should not be released back in the wild. It was eight years or more in age and in a very poor condition.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/the-problem-with-releasing-problem-tigers-back-in-forest/article4384653.ece

Community restraint helped save a tiger

Dr Ullas Karanth

Two incidents in the first week of December — first on the fringes of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, followed by the other on the edge of the Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka — have brought the focus back on conflict management in tiger conservation. While in Wayanad, the tiger was shot dead, in North Kodagu, an injured tiger stuck in a barbed wire fence was rescued. These provide contrasting scenarios in conservation. In this interview to Sharath S. Srivatsa, tiger scientist and Director for Science-Asia of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) K. Ullas Karanth shares his thoughts on conservation and conflict management in the contiguous forests comprising Bandipur-Nagarahole, Mudu malai and Wayanad, that supports an estimated 150-180 tigers (WCS estimate).

What worked against conservation in Wayanad and in its favour in Nagarahole?

I would not pose it that way. In the next incident, the situation could well get reversed. The key point is, in this case, in Wayanad whipping up of public sentiment based on inflated tiger numbers put out by government, the media frenzy over a few cattle kills which were compensated, and the inability to handle a mob situation led to shooting of a tiger. The information that was available from our scientific data in terms of the “problem” tigers history was ignored, a photo of a tiger already in Mysore Zoo was released to the media as a different problem tiger etc. In the Kodagu case, the village leadership showed restraint and the forest department acted swiftly.

With more effort on tiger conservation, which could result in an increase in the population, do you think such conflicts could occur more often in forest fringes?

Yes, such conflicts on the fringe are in a sense the price we pay for successful tiger population recoveries. You do not have such conflicts in the vast forests of Northeastern hill states, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh etc. because tigers are almost gone or not producing much surplus annually to disperse. With a good prey base, tiger populations produce surpluses regularly. Annual losses in such surplus populations are as high as 20 per cent without reducing densities or numbers. So rational conservation involves such population recoveries as well as dealing with the consequences using the best of science and data — and not just feeling sentimental towards an individual tiger and its fate.

What would be a successful conservation and conflict reduction model in the Bandipur-Nagarahole-Mudumalai-Wayanad block in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve?

Basically that model would include

1. ensuring strict protection of tigers and prey inside the reserves; 
2. using best possible science to monitor individual tigers and the population status; 
3. when conflicts occur, promptly compensating livestock losses; 
4. if human life is threatened removing the problem tigers either through chemical capture or if circumstances warrant it lethal removal; and 
5. depending on health, age and other objective factors the captured animals should be retained in captivity, or in rare cases released or in specific cases euthanized painlessly. 

The central point is to ensure that tiger populations thrive even if individuals are lost and secondly public support is essential to having core tiger habitats that are strictly protected and support thriving tiger populations.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/community-restraint-helped-save-a-tiger/article4278475.ece

Tiger count goes up in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu: Wildlife Conservation Society data

Our data base has recorded over 600 individual tigers in past seven years. The total tiger population in Karnataka is about 250 to 300.

Tiger population in India is not dwindling, at least in key reserves in south India where it is actually reaching saturation levels.

In Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks in Karnataka and bordering areas in Tamil Nadu, tiger populations have reached saturation levels with surplus young tigers spilling out into forests and dispersing through forest corridors. In newer tiger reserves including Bhadra and Kudremukh, numbers have increased by as much as 50 percent.

This has emerged in new global data released by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which is engaged in scientific monitoring and conservation programme in collaboration with government agencies including the National Tiger Conservation Agency.

"The picture is not at all dismal as often projected", said Dr Ullas Karanth, Bangalore-based conservationist who heads Asia operations of WCS. "Scientific monitoring of tiger and prey populations using techniques like Camera Trap, enhanced antipoaching patrols by government agencies and voluntary relocation of people with help from NGOs have helped in boosting tiger numbers significantly".

The Camera Trap project of WCS in Karnaraka, said to be the largest such globally, has helped in scientific monitoring. "Our data base has recorded over 600 individual tigers in the past seven years, and at any given point in time the total tiger population in Karnataka is about 250 to 300", Karanth said.

The overall tiger population densities in Nagarahole-Bandipur have remained high, ranging between 8 tigers per 100 square kilometer to 13 tigers per 100 square kilometres. The prey densities have also been high. "The dispersal and conflict patterns indicate that this population is producing a large surplus every year", he said. Elephants and leopards are among the wild species that share the same landscape.

The monitoring and conservation aspects of the Karnataka model can be emulated in reserves elsewhere though involvement of voluntary groups could vary keeping in view local situation, the veteran conservationist said.

In both states, wildlife staff vacancies have been filled up, patrolling systems have been improved with increased investments and local communities involved in conservation efforts.

It is a technique used to capture images of wild animals without direct human interference. Ordinary cameras are fixed at key points in a reserve, along with infrared sensors that let the camera clock whenever they sense movement in the forest. The locations are changed occasionally because their flash lights alert animals and they start avoiding the area. To distinguish one tiger from another, WCS has developed image processing software which allows speedy and reliable identification of tigers from trap photographs.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/tiger-count-goes-up-in-karnataka-and-tamil-nadu-wcs/1/240283.html