Uttarakahnad has seen a substantial rise in the number of tigers in both big cat habitats of the State — Corbett Tiger Reserve and Rajaji Tiger Reserve — as per the Tiger Census of the year 2016-17, released by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat at his residence on Wednesday.
While the number of the big cats inhabiting the Corbett Tiger Reserve has shot up to 208 as against 163 of the last census it has gone up to 34 in Rajaji Tiger Reserve as against 16 as per the last census. Sounding happy over the steady rise in the big cat population in the State, Chief Minister said the credit must go to the State Forest Department officials who have worked hard to save the tigers from the clutches of the poachers.
He further said Uttarakhand with 340 tigers, including cubs and those inhabiting other parts of the State outside these two reserves, has come up as the number one State in the country when counted in terms of the areas of their habitats. Though in terms of number, Karnataka is standing first with 400 tigers inhabiting the Uttarakhand with 340 tigers must be considered ahead of Karnataka in view of its areas being much smaller than the southern State, said CM.
The census was released in the presence of State Forest Minister Dr Harak Singh Rawat, Chief Secretary S Ramaswami, Additional Chief Secretaries — Ranbir Singh and Omprakash, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev and his close aide Acharya Balkrishana.
As per the Corbett Tiger Reserve sources, CTR had installed 535 cameras and the census had been conducted in two phases. WWF had helped them by imparting training to their employees about how to do census. The first phase was conducted between November 28, 2016 and January 21, 2017 through camera trap in CTR, Ramnagar tiger reserve division while the second phase was conducted between January 25-2017 and March 19, 2017 in Kalagarh tiger reserve division.
In every camera point, two cameras were installed. While in Ramnagar 235 cameras remained installed for 55 days in Kalagarh division 232 cameras were installed on 54 points. During this period, the census officials got picture of 424,870 in 25,453 night traps. While 3892 tigers’ picture were trapped 2,539 pictures were used for the census. During this census, they had matched the tigers’ right and left portion pictures during which both left and right side pictures of 142 special tigers were trapped. While 66 pictures were taken of the left side of the tigers 96 pictures of the right side of the tigers were taken and they were matched for reaching the final figure of the census.
CTR Ramnagar division collected pictures of 99 special tigers and six tiger cubs while in Kalagarh division, 109 special tigers were identified.
In Rajaji Tiger Reserve (RTR), WWI) and WWF have supported in the tiger census phase -IV--2016-17. Camera trap density was 1.5 kilometers and had installed 562 cameras in core areas of the RTR. They conducted it between January 28,2017 to June 3, 2017 in 10 ranges. In each range they had collected 620 tigers’ picture in 15330 night traps. While analysing the picture they come to conclusion that 34 tiger and five tiger cubs are living here. In 2014, the figure was 16.