New Delhi: According to the latest Wildlife Institute of India(WII) report, around 35%-40% of tigers from India live outside the forest and the also from the protected areas. But their movement could be restricted as many wildlife corridors are in a bad condition.
The number of tigers calculated inside and outside the reserve was a part of the 2014 tiger estimated it was found that 2,226 tigers in 92,000 sq km as compared to 81,000 sq km in 2010.
In Maharashtra, 74 of the 170 tigers are on the outskirts of the protected areas. The big cats were seen in new areas around the Todaba and Pech reserves, which is leading to an increase in man animal conflict. As per WII, the connectivity between wildlife corridors in the state was threatened by infrastructure development plantations and Industrialization.
Similarly in Karnataka, more than 38% of the 406 tigers are estimated to be in the fringe and buffer zones of protected areas. Impact of this could be clearly visible at Nagarhole tiger reserves, where at least five incidents of tigers attacking the cattle in the nearby villages have been reported. But still, the WII appreciated the villages fir relocating and for the improvement in tiger habitat.
WII also mentioned that the tiger population in high human dominated areas, as seen around Tadoba and Bor in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand’s Corbett National Park, Rajasthan’s Ranthambore and Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh, has increased human tiger conflict.
Corbett also has a sizable population outside the core area — in recent years, this has led to a tiger’s killing.
State government officials said CCTV cameras, called ‘eye in the sky’, have been set up around fringe areas to monitor the tiger population moving out of the core area.
Ullas K Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society argued for the revival of green corridors that make movement easier for tigers from high-density habitats to lesser ones.
