'Save the Tiger' campaign pays dividends - Karnataka is now home to over 400 tigers

The 'Save the Tiger' campaign is paying rich dividends because, Karnataka is now home to over 400 tigers and holds the No. 1 position when it comes to the country's tiger population. The lush forests in the state are home to more big cats than 406 - this has been revealed by the national tiger census report in 2014.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 6 January 2015.

The census report has been made public by the Wildlife Institute of India and does not cover protected areas like Male Mahadeshwara (MM Hills) Wildlife Sanctuary and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary which is not a traditional tigers haunt.
The census is based on a scientific analysis of 1,933 sqkm and was conducted through camera-trapping. The result is the discovery of a healthy tiger population in the two protected areas.
At MM Hills, there were 12 tigers and two were documented at Cauvery .
In the opinion of experts, these areas have the potential to double their tiger count within five years because many of them are young.
These two protected areas are located in the confluence of the Eastern and Western Ghats and have scope for adequate funding and more protection under the Project Tiger initiative.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Leopards numbers in India down by 80% over last 100 years

#leopard #projecttiger #poachers Leopards in India are becoming a fast vanishing species and a team of researchers have revealed that the count of this animal has gone down by nearly 80% over the last 100 years. This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 6 April 2015.
Of late, several instances have been reported of human-leopard conflict and it had been presumed that this was happening because of increase in leopard population. This is blamed to the loss of their natural habitats. But, a study conducted by three wildlife scientists over a period of four years has found that the situation is just the opposite.

The study has concluded that leopard population has gone down by a whopping 70-80 per cent over the past 100 years. The study was conducted by reps of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) – the report has been sent to wildlife journals for review.
Incidentally, Tigers have got protection under the Project Tiger program because of which, poachers are now replacing tiger body parts with those of leopards. Proof of this is the fact that around 4,000 body parts and bones of leopards were recovered in the period 1994-2013 as compared to 1,000 body parts of tigers.

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