ADILABAD: During a wildlife board meeting on Thursday, discussions centred on the Kagaznagar corridor, with a proposal forwarded to the state government and NTCA to convert the Kagaznagar natural forest into a wildlife corridor.
A senior forest officer, speaking anonymously, praised the proposal, citing the importance of the Kagaznagar area as a crucial tiger landscape. The migration of tigers from Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to the Kagaznagar forest division, crossing the Pranahita river, has significantly increased, with numbers now reaching double digits. The officer noted that tigers rarely return to Tadoba once they have migrated to Kagaznagar due to population shifts favouring the latter area.
The government’s initial focus will be on mitigating forest encroachment, ensuring the safety of tigers, and providing compensation to farmers for cattle killing and crop loss caused by tiger predation. Recent incidents, including the poisoning of one tiger and another killed in a territorial fight, were the reason for the urgency of such measures. Additionally, efforts are underway to locate several missing tigers, including a female with four cubs and a male.
In the Kawal Tiger Reserve, the provision of three-phase power connections to interior forest areas has inadvertently led to increased poaching activity and illegal felling of teakwood trees. To address this issue, plans are being made to rehabilitate interior habitations and provide alternative cultivation lands to reduce human presence in critical tiger habitats. Concerns have also been raised about disturbances caused by villagers in forested areas, leading to aggressive encounters between tigers and humans.