India leading in big cat conservation

Hyderabad: Wildlife trade is second only to narcotics in terms of its scale and extent, yet this activity is largely neglected in India, said Imran Siddiqui, the founder of Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society (HyTiCoS). The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has only 109 sanctioned posts across India and lack of manpower is affecting surveillance.

Unlike in the past, there is no dearth of money for conservation. On the contrary, too much spending under the guise of conservation is leading to devastating impact on the ecosystems because the money is supporting infrastructure or civil constructions, he deplored.

On state of tigress K4 in Chennur forest

The good news about K4 is that she is doing quite well. Despite the snare, she walks for 10-15 km at a stretch and is killing large domestic or wild prey. She is very smart, moves very fast and is extremely shy. "We now plan to set up 6 permanent baits and use 30-40 monitoring locations with the objective of locating her, after which we may plan to capture using dating from a machan or hide," he said

K4 was probably injured by a wire snare laid for hunting herbivores or protecting crops. It would have been traumatic for her, and now the snare seems to have tightened up like a noose around her abdomen. She is naturally very shy and the snare incident has made her more cautious and alert. The main challenge is that K4 does not return to kills often and her route is quite unpredictable. She is moving in a range of 500 sq. kms, thus making it difficult to locate her. After the capture she would receive a through medical checkup to rule out presence of internal injuries.

India world leader in tiger conservation

Tiger was being written off and thought to have been extinct before the dawn of 21st century, yet it has remarkably recovered. India is undoubtedly the world leader in tiger conservation, with its project tiger programme, and it hosts around 70% of the global tiger population, and we have over 50 tiger reserves covering more than 2% of our land, Imran Siddiqui observed.

The science developed in India by relentless research from people like Dr K Ullas Karanth and adoption of these methods by the apex body National Tiger Conservation Authority, specially under the leadership of Dr, Rajesh Gopal, and Wildlife Institute of India has led to India taking up the largest wildlife monitoring exercise in the world. Most countries look up to India and its model for tiger conservation, especially in states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. and parks like Corbett, Kaziranga, Kanha, Nagarhole etc, he added proudly.