Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary a paradise for big cats: Survey


The efforts for declaring Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary as tiger reserve have got a shot in the arm with a recent study conducted by the Forest Department and the WWF-India revealing that the sanctuary is a paradise for big cats in South India.


The survey, conducted from October 2011 to January 2012 using camera trap method, has found that the sanctuary houses 70 tigers and 10 cubs.


Making the bid much stronger, the data shows that Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary comes second to Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve in housing the highest number of big cats in South India.


“Though we are yet to publish the data of the count officially, the number of tigers noticed during the survey is something surprising to us. With the increase in numbers, the risk of protecting them, especially from poachers, also becomes high. Though we have our own mechanism to protect and track the animals in the sanctuary, it would not be enough and it is here that the demand for a tiger reserve arises. Now it is up to the State Government to decide on sending the proposal to the Ministry of Environment and Forests,” said a top official of the Wayanad Wildlife sanctuary.



According to the experts, declaring Wayanad Sanctuary as a reserve will help in the better management of the big cats in the entire region as the sanctuary shares its boundaries with three Tiger Reserves - Nagarhole and Bandipur in Karnataka and Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu. Once the sanctuary is declared a tiger reserve, it would also  get more financial aid and other assistance from the central government, which can be used to improve the existing facilities as well as installing new ones.


“The data on number of tigers in the sanctuary supplements the demand for the tiger reserve. Already three tiger reserves are in the region and we should see the entire Nilgiri region as a single landscape. Declaring the Wayanad sanctuary as a tiger reserve will help in the better management and coordination in the efforts to protect the tiger population in the Nilgiri Biosphere,” said P O Nameer, Head of the Department of Wildlife Science, College of Forestry, Thrissur.

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