HUBBALLI: The only tiger protection area in North Karnataka, the Kali Tiger Reserve has become a model reserve for many who are finding it difficult to carry out tiger counting in the country. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have laid down protocols for tiger counting and the Kali reserve has been following it in the right spirit, say forest officials.
The Kali Tiger Reserve in Uttara Kannada district is a beautiful forest landscape and a prime tourist destination. In the previous census conducted in 2018, the tiger population here was 12.
Though the forest heads had hoped for more numbers of tigers, the numbers were below than what was expected. This year, special emphasis was given for the camera trap experiment under captureand- recapture method. This has helped the reserve to arrive at accurate numbers. The census was also conducted in other forest areas of Uttara Kannada besides the Kali Tiger Reserve. According to the internal assessment, there are 30 tigers in the district of which 90% are in the Kali reserve. Tigers have also been reported from Yellapur, Sirsi, and Haliyal division.
“WII and NTCA have laid down the protocols for tiger counting and we have followed it on the ground. For instance, the use of rangefinder in line transacts for herbivore surveys was made mandatory for volunteers. If you need accurate figures of tigers one has to follow the methodology correctly,” said a forest official part of the census. Senior officials of the Karnataka Forest Department say that Karnataka has a healthy population of tigers.
“Karnataka is part of the most important tiger landscape — Nilgiri Biosphere — along with Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Similarly, Kali Tiger Reserve is turning into a source population site for several animals which are dispersing to the wildlife areas attached to it. The entire landscape stretching from Bhimghad National Park in Belagavi to Bhagawan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary on the other end, the Kali is an important landscape for tigers. We are expecting a steady rise in numbers of tigers in Kali after several interior villages were relocated,” added an official.