Concerned over the increasing number of tigers in non-protected areas, wildlife conservationists have said that it was high time the forest department shifted its focus to these areas as tigers were most vulnerable here.
As per estimates, Maharashtra's tiger reserves have 139 big cats while there were around 58 tigers in non-protected areas. Wildlife sanctuaries have six.
Meanwhile, Kedar Gore, director of The Corbett Foundation (TCF) which has been working on several wildlife related issues across the country, said that the non-protected areas in the Western Ghats were being ignored.
"While we have been seeing that there are several studies as well as work being done in the non-protected areas of Vidarbha region related to protection of tigers, the Western Ghats, which also have a crucial tiger habitat, demands serious attention as the corridor extends right up to south India and there is an urgent need to safeguard not only these corridors but also ensure that the habitat remains undisturbed," he said.
As per Gore, with protection as well as good prey base, the tiger population in the reserves are on the rise, which obviously means that there are also an increasing spill over of tigers in the non-protected areas due to territory fights.
"These corridors are being used by tigers to move to different areas or even use it as their temporary base till they could drive out an older tigers from their territories in the reserves. Hence, we have to now see the non-protected areas in a different light and work effortlessly to protect the habitat as these were holding grounds for the tigers," said Gore.
Another wildlife activist highlighted that the tigers were most vulnerable in non-protected areas. "There is shortage of prey base in non-protected areas and hence big cats often hunt cattle, thus increasing man-tiger conflict. And this makes them prone to killings due to poisoning by angry locals. Apart from this, the major worry is also poaching as a majority of tiger poaching occurs in the non-protected areas," said the activist, adding that unfortunately the forest department often ignores the non-protected areas and hence several important corridors have seen large-scale encroachments.
A senior forest official, speaking on conditions of anonymity, agreed that not enough was being done when it came to non-protected areas. "Recently, the chief wildlife warden in a meeting asked all the chief conservator of forest (CCF) of territorial wings to come up with a wildlife management plan and even expressed that there was need for more focus in these areas," he said, adding that though the territorial wing had more staff, wildlife was not the priority as they also had several other activities on hand which included plantation, VIP visits and others.
