NILGIRIS: Following the recent death of tiger cubs due to starvation and a male tiger due to alleged poisoning, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has decided to strengthen patrolling in six forest ranges in the Nilgiris division.
Briefing media persons on Wednesday about the death of 10 tigers in the district in 34 days, D Venkatesh Conservator of forests and Field Director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) said Anti Poaching Watchers camps and watch towers would be set up to ensure frequent patrolling in the six forest ranges such as Kundha, Korakundha, parson Valley Bykara, Nilgiris South, Naduvattam etc that are situated close to the Mukurthi national park. A six-member gang (Bawaria) from North India had been arrested for poaching a sub-adult tigress in Avalanche in February.
“Already training was given to field level staff about using M- the stripes patrolling app which will be used for recording the movement of every tiger even in inaccessible areas in these six forest ranges. This will help us to identify whether a new tiger has arrived in the area. The death of ten tigers occurred at different places and also due to the different reasons,” said Venkatesh “Usually, we monitor tiger movement using camera traps once in four years.
However, considering the frequent death of tigers in the last month, we have decided to conduct monitoring once a year similar to the census in MTR in these forest ranges. We are considering the deaths as unnatural and can ascertain the exact cause after getting lab results. This is the SOP as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guideline,” said Venkatesh.
Asked if they traced the mother of the cubs that died, he said they have lifted a scat sample of a sub-adult tiger in Chinna Coonoor where a Sambar deer was killed by a tiger. Eight camera traps have been set up to record the movement of the mother tiger.