GLENN COSTA
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PANJIM: From an authorities induced tiger drought in recent years, it seems to be raining tigers this season as another tiger was spotted by tiger expert Dr Ullas Karanth – but this time on the Karnataka side of the Goa border – Forest Department officials said.
The department is conducting a survey to ascertain how many grown tigers are within the “zone” that signifies that it is part of the tiger roaming territory. The find was made before the team packed up their equipment – read cameras- to await the end of the monsoon. The work should restart by October.
“A tiger was spotted on the Karnataka side of the border,” Principal Conservator of Forests Richard D’ Souza told Herald, confirming that the tiger survey would restart by October. “We will try putting traps in October,” he said adding that this Karnataka-Goa border is likely to be part of the “zone” wherein tigers prowl.
There are approximately only 1400 tigers left in the entire country.
Mhadei situated in Sattari taluka of north Goa and spread over 208 square kilometre is being mooted as a tiger reserve and though small, is said to be a contiguous tiger zone along with Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka in the south-east and Anshi Dandeli Tiger Reserve in the south.
This area or zone has 35 tigers according to the All India Tiger Estimate, 2010.
The Karanth team, set to work in the state’s jungles till 2017 has already confirmed the presence of a tigress and a tiger in the jungles giving credence to reports and environmentalists’ claims that Goa is part of the tigers’ stomping grounds. This is despite many unbelievers and interests – mostly pushed by business interests, claim environmentalists, who fear that in case there is a tiger reserve declared then business – especially mining will not be allowed in the area.
Dr K Ullas Karanth, is a conservation zoologist and leading tiger expert, based in Karnataka, and is working closely with the state Forest Department to document tigers. He confirmed that the tiger photographed recently was unique to Goa and not part of any of the 600 tigers who live in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The team has also photographed a leopard before it stopped.
Goa’s four wildlife sanctuaries are located on the eastern side of the state, in the Western Ghats, covering an area of about 750 km2.
The Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park all fall within the Mhadei River basin. The Mhadei River is known downstream as the Mandovi, originates in Karnataka, travels some 28.8 km in Karnataka, passes through the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and meets the Arabian Sea at Panjim after meandering for 81.2 km through Goa.
However, more than one third of Goa’s 90-odd iron ore mines that were operating for a long time – closed now after the Supreme Court ban – include those run by the powerful business families – are close to the wildlife sanctuaries, and setting up a tiger reserve would ensure that there is implementation of wildlife norms and sound a death knell to the rampant destruct that characterized open cast mining as claimed by environmentalists .
Surla, Sattari, Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary, Molem National Park and Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary, Sanguem, Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary are all heavily forested and form a contiguous belt of dense forest across Goa and connect the Western Ghats forests of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“The status of tigers, co-predators and prey in india, 2008,” by the Wildlife Institute of India have stated that areas in Goa and their contiguous forests in Karnataka and Maharashtra could possibly be some of the best potential tiger habitats in the Western Ghats region and that restoration, conservation and strict protection can and will support a healthy population of large cats in this region. The 2010 estimation report says that Goa can be home to a small breeding population of tigers that can be sustained by Anshi-Dandeli and Sahayadri, and would benefit from being part of the tiger reserve complex.
