ADILABAD: In the Forest Survey of India (FSI) report released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the presence of only one tiger at the Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR) raises many questions. Experts say the disturbance in the core area is one of the major reasons behind the migration of tigers to Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra.
As per the 2018 tiger census, there is only one tiger at KTR, which environmentalists say is owing to the delay in the relocation of villages from the core area. Many tiger reserves in States such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu relocate two or three villages every year, but no such exercise has been carried out at KTR.
Even though the TATR has a total area of 1727.59 square kilometres compared to KTR’s 2015.44, the former has 83 tigers compared with the latter’s one.The KTR, which was earlier in the erstwhile Adilabad district, covers four districts now. A senior forest official, on the condition of anonymity, said the lack of coordination among departments and within the department of other districts is delaying the relocation of villages.
An environmental organisation filed a PIL with the Telangana High Court in 2020. At that time, the court passed interim orders directing the four district collectors, SPs and forest officials to take measures to protect the forest and arrest poaching activity. Since then, only one meeting with all four district collectors has materialised.
The divisional level officer, who identifies the migration of a tiger to another division, isn’t aware of whom to coordinate with and inform of the migration. Experts say that the government must appoint a field director, as is common in other States, to monitor the entire KTR with the help of division officials.
Speaking to Express, Khanapur divisional officer U Koteshwar Rao said that the disturbance in the core forest area is one of the major reasons behind the migration of tigers. He added that two phases of the tiger census was completed, while the third phase was going on, after which the exact number of tigers in the region will be known.