ERODE: The Sathy Tiger Reserve (STR), the fourth in the State, has 50 tigers at present, said STR officials.
There are tiger reserves in Mudumalai in the Nilgiris, Anaimalai in Coimbatore and Kalakadu-Mundanthurai in Nellai districts. STR is on 1.04 lakh acre in the district.
The animal census showed that STR has more tigers now than a decade ago. The droppings collected in the forest area and studied in labs at the Wildlife Research Station, Bengaluru some years ago confirmed that Sathy forest area had more tigers.
After that the tiger conservation authority declared it as a tiger reserve forest. Tigers were also coming to STR from Bandipur and Mudumalai forests.
The wild animals were roaming in Kalithimbam, Ramaranai, Uppupallam, Nandhipuram, Thengumarahada, Mangalapatti, Bejalatti, Kethesal, Kuliyoda areas of STR.
The movement was more near Moyaru river in Thengumarahada forest and Allimoyar near Kallampalayam.
The tigers caught deer roaming in the forest from JJ Nagar to Karuvannarayan temple in the STR. As the tiger could cross the Bavanisagar Forest Road, the candid cameras were kept at Kallampalayam, Thengumarahada Road, Upppallam, and Moyaru etc to identify the tiger movement. The cameras recorded movement of many tigers in those areas.
The Sathy DFO K Rajkumar said, “The tigers would normally live in thick forests. If there are no carnivores (flesh eaters), the population of herbivores would rise and it would affect the forest area. If the tigers existed the forest would also be well protected.
If forests vanished, then the rainfall would dwindle. It would finally affect people and agriculture.
Hence steps were taken to conserve tigers and in this connection alone, July 29 is observed as World Tiger Day.