The Forest and Wildlife Department has constituted a ‘Tiger Cell’ to look into matters related to protection and intelligence gathering in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden V Gopinathan constituted the Cell with Conservator of Forests or Field Director (Project Tiger) of Palakkad wildlife circle as the chairperson.
The Cell consists of Conservator of Forests or Chief Conservator of Forests, eastern circle Palakkad; Conservator of Forests or chief conservator of Forests, central circle Thrissur and Conservator of Forests, Kozhikode as members and Parambikulam Tiger Reserve deputy director as member-secretary.
The Tiger Cell would closely monitor the activities of the Tiger Reserve, such as the investigation of cases relating to tigers and leopards, conduct surveys on poached animals, identify and document trade routes and market forces, compliance of patrolling in core and buffer areas and the implementation of protocol for monitoring tiger, co-predator and prey populations in the landscape, says the government order issued recently in connection with the constitution of the Cell.
The Cell is also entrusted with the task of liaison with the Crime Control Bureau and other agencies with respect to tiger and leopard poaching, intelligence sharing, giving rewards to candid informers for excellent performance, identifying existing conflicting land use policies affecting tiger and prey habitat and resolving them through multi-sectoral dialogue and monitoring of cattle lifting cases by tiger.
The Cell would meet at least once in six months and the proceedings of the meetings would be submitted to the Chief Wildlife Warden. Experts could be invited to the meeting if needed, the order says.