Underlining the importance of developing habitats for tigers outside protected areas like sanctuaries, a forested patch near Nagpur has emerged as a source from where tiger reserves can add to their population of the big cats.
In 2011, a pregnant tigress was rescued from a well in the Kondhali-Kalmeshwar block near Nagpur. She, however, aborted her litter. The forest department decided to release the tigress in the area and develop it as a habitat, through interventions like grassland and watershed development. This helped create a prey base by attracting herbivores like chital and sambar.
Spread over an area of around 180 sq km in the Nagpur territorial forest division, the block contains a mix of jungles, factories, including those manufacturing explosives, human settlements and farms. Traditionally, wildlife conservation has less importance in territorial regions compared to protected areas.
The tigress, named ‘Katlabodi’ after the location where she was found, has emerged as the matriarch after giving birth to three litters of nine cubs, which are now populating the habitat and even protected areas like the Bor tiger reserve, located around 10 km away. Conventionally, protected areas serve as a source of tiger population for non-protected areas.
Nawab (in pic), part of Katlabodi’s second litter from a male, ‘Bajirao’ from Bor, was sighted at Pohra-Malkhed near Amravati and may be migrating to the Melghat tiger reserve or Satpuda tiger reserve (Madhya Pradesh). A female from her first litter has also migrated towards Melghat.
“Better protection has yielded results despite it not being a sanctuary,” said Kundan Hate, honorary wildlife warden, Nagpur.
The forest is covered by camera traps and monitored continuously. “Man-animal conflict is nil despite the presence of five adult tigers and six cubs in the landscape. The increase in numbers of herbivores like chital, sambar and nilgai have also not led to complaints from farmers about crop depredation. We have maintained the ecological balance,” Hate noted.
G Mallikarjuna, Deputy Conservator of Forests, said the area was emerging as a population source for protected areas like Bor. “Kalmeshwar falls on the corridor between the Melghat and Pench tiger reserves,” he explained.
Researcher Dhanusha Kawalkar, an MSC (wildlife conservation action) student at the Bharti Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune, noted that the landscape faces threats like the presence of National Highway-6, which fragments it, and illegal sand mining. Moreover, the testing conducted in the nearby explosive manufacturing companies causes tremors.
EARNING STRIPES
First litter: Two females (one is in Kondhali and the other has migrated towards Melghat), one male (Naseeb, or BTRT2, who is in the Bor tiger reserve).
Second litter: Two females (they share their mother’s habitat), one male (Nawab, or T4, who has migrated towards Amravati).
Third litter: One male, two females (around five months old).
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