Hyderabad: Experts say that there are most probably more than the 68 tigers, as claimed by the Wildlife Institute of India National Tiger Conservation Authority (WIINTCA) in TS and AP, as there haven’t been any proper surveys done in large parts of tiger habitats, especially in the Godavari basin forests. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh together have over 15,000 sq. km of tiger habitat, which can support over 300 tigers if sustained effort is undertaken for 15 years.
Imran Siddiqui, biologist at Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society (HyTiCoS), said, “Because of the bifurcation, a lot of tiger habitation areas has been ignored in the count by WII-NTCS; the number would be 20 per cent more, especially because Papikondallu was ignored.”An occupancy survey has been proposed and would be undertaken by HyTiCoS along with the Forest department, which would help identify the areas where tigers are present or can persist. Further, intensive monitoring will be undertaken for assessing the prey and tigers.
For very low density areas, identification using fecal DNA might be feasible, as it would not require great technical skills and resources. For good tiger density areas, camera traps would be used.
“At Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary, Adilabad, long term monitoring line transects have been established and prey is being monitored for the past five years on a regular basis. In Kawal Tadabo corridors we are assisting in monitoring of four individual tigers that we believe would help in repopulating Kawal. We have to start similar transects in Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) /Amarabad Tiger reserve too in the coming days,” he added.
