There is now a more precise and effective solution to the growing problem of man-tiger conflicts in the country. An expert study — ‘Photographic Database Informs Management of Conflict Tigers — uses unique stripe pattern-matching software to zero in on individual tigers in conflict and relocate them out of the troubled area for the benefit of both tigers and people.
The system has been developed by the researchers of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and their associates. According to Dr Ullas Karanth, Director for Science-Asia WCS, “Using scientific methods to locate individuals involved in conflict with humans and livestock helps us to mitigate threats to people and prevent the capture of the wrong tigers, especially wherever tigers may venture beyond protected area borders.”
According to the researchers , the system has so far helped in identifying/photo trapping 750 tigers from six protected areas in the Malanad Tiger landscape in the Western Ghats in the country, developing a sound tiger database.
This has become a key factor in finding and capturing problem tigers. One of the recent cases include the capture of a big cat that was involved in the loss of human life near Bandipur National Park in Karnataka in December 2013. The scientists who managed to get pictures of the animal from camera traps set up near the area of conflict discovered a match with an animal photographed over a five year period and probably past its prime. “Old tigers unable to catch natural prey animals can sometimes resort to hunting livestock, bringing them in conflict with people”, said the experts.
Another tiger that was involved in the killing of cattle in a village next to Nagarahole National Park in July this year, was by contrast a 2-3 year old sub-adult. The incident had occurred about35 kilometres from locations in which it was previously photographed. The scientists concluded this young tiger was likely searching for a territory, beyond protected areas. Both tigers have been captured and relocated to a nearby zoo.
The basis of the system rests on the fact that every tiger has different stripe pattern on their body and once a aberrant tiger is photographed in a camera trap its stripe pattern is known so it becomes easy to identify the aberrant one from other normal tigers of that area so the question of a normal tiger being captured is completely ruled out.
This method is completely foolproof and far better than conventional tiger pug mark tracing where while tracing a pug mark human error is bound to creep in, said an expert. It also enables researchers to keep track of other data such as home range locations, age, sex of individual animals and their activity patterns.