The Corbett tiger landscape has not remained untouched by forest fires occurring across the State but there is no report yet of wildlife including tigers falling prey to the blaze. Meanwhile, continued monitoring of identified tigers in Corbett has ascertained that the big cat which had killed a fire watcher in April is not a man-eater.
Apart from monitoring work, the authorities have also deployed wildlife rescue teams with necessary equipment including tranquiliser darts to prevent human-wildlife conflict in case of chance encounters with wildlife moving out of the forest fire affected areas.
Even as questions are being raised about the absence of wildlife casualty reports, departmental officials too have expressed differing views on the forest fires. While some maintain that the forest fires were hyped up by the media and will not have a major impact on the wildlife, others point out that considering the nesting and egg laying season of ground-nesting birds the forest fires must have caused considerable loss especially of avifauna.
Talking to The Pioneer, the Corbett tiger reserve deputy director Saket Badola said that the situation is presently under control but caution is being maintained. He said, “We have deployed a wildlife rescue team at Ramnagar. Equipped with necessary equipment and a veterinary doctor, this team will take necessary action to rescue wildlife and prevent conflict situation resulting from chance encounters between humans and wildlife moving out of forest fire affected area. We have continued monitoring and patrolling to keep a check on forest fire and human-wildlife conflict. The task of ascertaining the impact of the forest fires on the wildlife will be undertaken soon though at present no major wildlife loss has been reported so far.”
In the meantime, amidst reports of destruction caused by the forest fires, there is also some consoling news regarding the tiger which had killed a fire watcher in a chance encounter in the Sarpduli range of Corbett earlier in April. The human kill on April 9 had sparked fear among some members of the local community about the tiger turning in to a man-eater.
However, since there have been no reports of tiger attacking humans since the incident, department officials believe that the tiger has not turned man-eater.
Badola said, “We are not allowing tourists into the area where the tiger had killed the fire watcher in Sarpduli range. Additionally, we have installed camera traps and continued elephant patrol in the area in addition to keeping a tab on the movements of big cats in the area. As no reports of tiger attacking human have been received since the kill on April 9, we have reason to believe that the earlier incident was accidental as the big cat would have attempted attack on a human some days after the first incident had it been a man-eater. However, we have not let our guard down and have continued monitoring the situation while observing a cautious approach.”