The land of bushes and forests, as the name ‘Jharkhand’ literally means, has no tiger left in its Palamu Tiger Reserve, according to the Status of Tigers in India report released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Monday. The report though talks about presence of five tigers in the State, it’s unclear about their whereabouts.
According to the 2006 census there were 10 tigers in Jharkhand in 2010, which came down to three in 2014 and the latest report brings the total number of the big vats to five. However, the 2019 report makes it difficult to understand if the tigers are not in PTR then, where were they found?
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), Jharkhand PK Verma said that there could be an error in usage of ‘terms’ in the report as it states, “Tigers were not recorded in Buxa, Dampa and Palamau tiger reserves. Reserves had poor tiger status in earlier assessments as well.” Tigers may not have come under the direct recording methods in PTR and that is why it is showing such results, he said.
“The process of evidence recording is 83 per cent through direct and 17 per cent through indirect methods. It may be that during the census enough direct evidences could not have been obtained. I am not 100 per cent sure and I feel that the tigers are in PTR but the people who have made the report would be in the best position to make it clear,” said Verma hinting that they may seek some clarification and further details regarding the figures.
While the Field Director of PTR could not be reached for his comments on the issue, sources at the tiger reserve hinted that there was no concrete evidence of tigers in the forest reserve since long and due to Maoists’ presence in the core area till very recently, it becomes difficult to foray in the region. Also, even if the big cats are there in the region they keep changing the political boundaries of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, they added.
Sources further said that a lot of human interference in the area in the last decade has adversely affected the tigers’ habitat and made them vulnerable to poachers. Since a long time no evidence of tigers’ prey has been found to ascertain their presence, they added.
Notably, the Palamu Tiger Reserve spread in an area of about 1230 sqkm, was made a tiger reserve in 1973. It had a good number of tigers, which came down to three in 2014 census and zero in the latest report.
Although the PCCF (Wildlife) said that a lot of work is being done in the area to reclaim population of tigers, including habitat improvement, protection, prey based augmentation etc. “A proposal of releasing captive population of sambar and deer has been pending with the NTCA since long. We have sent a fresh proposal and if we get an approval we can release the prey in the area,” he said.