Tiger News

The Gujarat forest department will take up the country’s biggest and most challenging effort to reintroduce big cats from captivity to the wild now that 36 Asiatic lions suspected to be infected with canine distemper virus (CDV) have been declared fit to return to their natural habitat, according to officials familiar with the development.  The 36 lions suspected to be infected with CDV were moved to the two care centres last October following deaths of over 25 lions over a month. I ...

A comparison of stripes from photographs taken during its journey prove its from MP say wildlife officials. 'This is our tiger. We have matched the images' said Ujjain chief conservator of forests, B S Annigiri. 'We were tracking it till it was out of our jurisdiction. Now it has reached Gujarat they will take care of it.  After all, animals have no borders' he added. Wildlife officers and environmentalists in MP are stunned at how the big cat crossed densely populated reg ...

The Royal Bengal Tiger is not only at the top of the food chain in the wild but constitutes a vital link in maintaining nature’s rich diversity and ecosystems. Will it become extinct?  A recent PTI report cites researchers as saying that rising sea levels, caused by climate change, could destroy the world’s biggest mangrove forest — Sunderbans — spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres in India and Bangladesh, in the next 50 years. It quotes Sharif Mukul, an ass ...

>Recent media coverage has reported the presence of a tiger population in the Idu Mishmi’s ancestral homeland of Dibang Valley. These tigers are unique as they reach impressive altitudes of 3,600m and feed on a unique prey assemblage composed of Mishmi takin, serow and Gongshan muntjac.  >But what makes these tigers truly unique isn’t just that they are such formidable mountaineers but the very reason for their existence in Dibang Valley – the Idu Mishmi people themselve ...

The Paoni Deolapar highway that scrapes by the Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra has pulled the plug on many wild animals ever since it was constructed, with three tigers killed in the last one year on the highway, and one seriously injured on Saturday. Wildlife lovers have blamed the high median barriers on the road for this since they pose a hurdle to the animals crossing the road and hence want the height of the road dividers to be reduced.   Conservation photographer Sarosh Lodhi fro ...

The Global Tiger Forum (GTF), an international intergovernmental body, has assigned a score of 0.78 on the basis of population and habitat viability analysis, ahead of 0.71 earned by both Bhutan and Russia, 0.70 by Nepal and 0.61 by Bangladesh.  The GTF’s secretary general Rajesh Gopal presented the scores at the third stocktaking conference called to discuss the status of tiger recovery efforts in 13 tiger countries that had pledged in a 2010 conference to double their collective t ...

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Villagers are generally aware of the need for tigers or other wild animals to survive in the forest, but they are not aware that the ferocious big cats can actually be their saviours. “Yes, wild boars do not venture within a radius of 10 km of a tiger,” the FDO affirmed. “After the arrival of tigers in our division, especially in Penchikalpet and Bejjur forests, the wild pig menace is under control,” Mr. Reddy claimed. “The number of cattle kills has also decrease ...

"The governments in Southeast Asia now face an urgent need to step up their commitment to protect their remaining wild tiger populations. Countries like India, Nepal and Russia have shown that tiger recovery is possible, despite challenges in poaching, funding and sustaining community livelihoods, which can be overcome with strong political commitment,” said Joseph Vattakaven, who participated in the stocktaking conference as the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) global lead ...

Hopefully an increase in tiger numbers in areas of the Sunderbans where they have not previously been seen. Camera traps were installed in western sections of the National Park and the Sajnekhali Range which is the second part of the of the tiger census in the mangroves. Officials in Bengal are hopeful of a rise in tiger num ...