Sanctuary Asia – July 2019

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST

More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com |Conservation Action

The Tiger Task Force, in its fi rst report (the original blueprint of Project

Tiger) submitted in August 1972, was conscious “that maintaining a

genetically viable population of tigers would require larger areas than the

reserves and their contiguous forests provided.”

that the corridor is functional, making
it a high priority site for long-term
monitoring and conservation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREST

CORRIDORS

Forest corridors like the Bawanthadi
block are crucial to the survival of the
tiger as a species. Most of the Protected
Areas (PAs) in India are too small, and
don’t harbour tiger populations that
are ecologically, demographically and
genetically viable in the long term. As
tiger populations in PAs increase and
coming-of-age individuals set off to
fi nd mates and establish territories,
corridors enable their immigration and

emigration. Past study conducted by

one of the authors using landscape

genetics and remote sensing has

conclusively proved that tigers disperse

over distances as long as 600 km.,

underscoring the need to conserve

corridors and adopt a landscape-scale

approach to conservation. This is all the

more important in the Central Indian

Landscape, home to 30 per cent of

India’s wild tigers, where none of the

tiger populations are genetically viable

on their own.

Apart from facilitating gene fl ow

across the tiger reserves, long-term data

also confi rms that Bawanthadi supports a

resident population of tigers. The Wildlife

Conservation Trust’s (WCT) monitoring

eff orts, using camera traps, have also

thrown up some pleasant surprises.

Despite anthropogenic pressures, the

forest is home to elusive mammals

including honey badgers, Indian wolves,

striped hyaenas, and rusty-spotted cats –

the smallest of all wild cats.

Bawanthadi is, of course, just one of

many such forest blocks across Central

India that are surveyed under WCT’s

Large Carnivore Monitoring Programme.

We focus on gathering baseline data from

multiple-use forest blocks connecting

major tiger bearing PAs, as these could

harbour resident populations of tigers and

other wildlife. Long-term monitoring is

critical to our understanding of population

and distribution trends of large carnivores

in these forest blocks that are part of the

larger human-infl uenced forest mosaic in

Central India. Without such data, taking

informed conservation decisions and

planning for landscape-scale conservation

of large carnivores and their habitats are

well-nigh impossible tasks.

In India, tiger conservation eff orts

have largely been focused on PAs; but

signifi cant tiger populations exist outside

these supposedly inviolate reserves too,

and their survival here is threatened by

habitat and prey depletion at the hands

of humanity. “Science-based conservation

ABOVE The proposed 325 sq. km. addition to the buff er zone of the Pench Tiger Reserve, if brought

into eff ect, would bring a prime tiger breeding site under the protective ambit of the tiger reserve.

FACING PAGE Apart from facilitating gene fl ow across the tiger reserves, forest corridors in

Central India also support resident populations of tigers.