Jaipur. Do you know that there used to be 100,000 tigers in India. This number has been declining over the years, as the British and the then Maharajas started hunting. Wildlife expert Harshvardhan says that till the 1960s there was no comprehensive law to take care of wildlife, while widespread hunting of tigers was reported across India. He said that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth-II, along with her husband Prince Philip, had gone to Ranthambore to hunt tigers in the early 60s, after the then government approved the royal He was hosted in the same manner. Then came Project Tiger (PT) in 1973, where WWF-International played a major role and unsuspecting forest officials employed a swindling strategy to show the increasing numbers of tigers. Even now, things have not changed and the tiger faces another challenge – its forest is shrinking leading to increased human-animal conflict.
He said that about 10-15 tigers and tigresses are roaming outside almost all the best breeding reserves in India, as the dominant males do not allow the young, young and sub-adult males to stay inside the park. These stray tigers face tough challenges in their newly adopted ‘homes’, which are the villagers and their livestock. Hence the additional population of tigers inside the reserve is being rehabilitated outside the reserve. In addition, tiger corridors are missing. As a result, many tigers are killed by villagers or die in road accidents and accidents. In fact, Rajasthan, famous for its tigers and jungle safaris, is in discussion these days about the skewed sex ratio, the fight for the survival of tigers and the news of the disappearance of tigers. The Rajasthan Legislative Assembly recently discussed the issue of 13 missing tigers from Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.
The state forest department said it had no evidence of 13 tigers in the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in the last three years – from January 2019 to January 2022 – while responding to a question related to missing tigers, which the state BJP said. President Satish Poonia raised it. The Forest Department said that out of these 13 tigers, two tigers (T-20 and T-23) from 2019 till now and seven from 2020 till now (T-47, T-42, T-64, T-73, T- 95, T-97 and T-92) and four tigers (T-72, T-62, T-126 and T-100) have not been found since 2021. It states that four of these 13 tigers were older, but it is possible that the other tigers died naturally due to the high density, fled their territory or territorial conflict with other tigers. I have died.
Of the 13 tigers, nine belonged to the Ranthambore core area and two were from the Ranthambore buffer zone. The other two lived in the Kailadevi Reserve Forest outside the RTR, as data shows. The government in its reply said that due to the increase in their population and density around Ranthambore, more cases related to tiger disappearances, territorial battles and deaths have been reported between tigers. The ratio of male and female tigers in RTR is 1:1.3, which is unnatural. The data states that most of the 32 females in the reproductive age at this time have also contributed to the increase in population.
A senior forest official said that the tiger population in Ranthambore has increased and we have already exceeded the carrying capacity. There are about 55 mature tigers, whereas according to our carrying capacity, we have only about 40-45 mature tigers. In the regional battle, escape or fight with other tigers ends. PS Somashekar, a retired forest officer from Rajasthan, said that we may see an increase in the number of big cats, but in reality we are losing the battle. He said there was a time when stories of human-animal coexistence seemed real.
This was in the 70s and 80s but now it is a thing of the past. Developing areas around forests, four-lane highways, electricity, the sound of bikes and jeeps sometimes prompt these animals to come out of their periphery. He said that since the tiger is a carnivore, it needs regular movement from one area to another, however, we have created a barrier in its movement area. Somashekar said that government land has been converted into agricultural land, agricultural land has been converted into commercial land. So when animals move into corridor areas, it gets confused seeing four-lane highways, bright lights and sounds, leading to conflict. (IANS)
