Monitoring system for Project Tiger Reserve areas launched

Union Minister for Environment & Forests Jairam Ramesh today launched a new monitoring system that is expected to improve the effectiveness of all surveillance and anti-poaching interventions in Project Tiger Reserve areas.

According to an official press release, the tool has been developed to strengthen the interventions by field directors in order control poaching and prevent further intrusions into the forests. It will also ensure that patrolling is done by the forest guards.

"There are 39 Tiger Reserves in the country today. This system will ensure that the surveillance activities that are done by field director and his colleagues are based on ground level information," Mr Ramesh said.

He said the system has been developed by the Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London and the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

The releae said about 3.5 lakh sq km of forest area of tiger reserves and non-tiger reserves as well as general forest areas is being covered at the beat level. The expertise of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is also being involved in the process and, in many states, they have associated in Phase I data collection.

In areas prone to left-wing extremism with low density of tigers, scat collection would be done to ascertain the minimum population size through DNA analysis. The Phase I area will be forwarded to the Wildlife Institute of India in a customized digital format for carrying out camera trap sessions and distance sampling as part of the Phase III process involving research teams, the release said.

Mr Ramesh said that, as a pilot project, the system would be implemented within two months in six tiger reserves - Corbett,Uttaranchal; Ranthambhor, Rajasthan; Kanha, Madhya Pradesh; Bhadra, Karnataka; Annamalai, Tamil Nadu and Nagarjunasagar Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh.

He said the tiger census would be completed by November this year, with 75 per cent of the Phase I already completed. He said some areas in Orissa and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh had not been completed.

Mr Ramesh said work on Phase II, based on satellite data, and Phase III would be based on camera trapping.

He said there was encouraging news on tiger density after a very long time. According to preliminary estimates, the Kaziranga National Park had shown the highest known tiger density so far. He said tiger presence had been recently reported in Buxa.

According to him, in several areas like Nagarjunasagar, Bandipur, Satyamangalam, Mudumalai, Sahyadri and Radhanagiri, tiger sightings have been reported, including presence of cubs. In buffer areas of Indravati, too, evidence has come to light of tiger.

Talking about reintroduction plan for cheetah, Mr Ramesh said that the feasibility study being carried out by Wildlife Institute of India would be completed by May this year. After this, six locations will be studied as possible habitats for cheetah reintroduction - three of them in Madhya Pradesh, two in Rajasthan and one in Gujarat. Negotiations are being done with South Africa about this, he added.

NNN