In what can be perceived as a vindication of the beleaguered State Forest Department, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), conducting the assessment of census findings of tigers and their prey base in tiger ranges in the country, has in its preliminary findings on the Panna Tiger Reserve concluded a reasonably good density and healthy tiger population in the park. Although the census findings for 2006-07 have not been made public, the WII gave a preliminary report of the status of tigers to enable the park management to file an affidavit in connection with a case pending in the Supreme Court.
In a letter written to the park director Shahbaz Ahmed, WII director PR Sinha puts the number of tigers in Panna, Hinauta and Madla Ranges of the park at nine within an area of 185 sq km where camera trapping exercise was conducted. The Panna National Park is spread over an area of 543 sq kms and the area within which the camera trapping was conducted is nearly a third of the entire area.
The last census conducted at the park in 2004-05 using the old methodology had put the number of tigers at 34. The WII has also provided a minimum and maximum range of eight to 15 tigers and a confidence limit of 95 per cent, for the area under study.
In the letter, the WII director goes on to say that it would be naïve to assign a definitive number to tigers within an administrative unit. The present methodology for estimation is meant to provide a baseline for scientific monitoring of tigers along with its biotope in tiger occupied landscape rather than administratively demarcated tiger reserves.
The Panna National Park had been in the news after independent conservationists had challenged tiger census figures provided by the Forest Department. The Panna tiger crisis, as it came to be known nationally after environmental groups filed cases in the apex court questioning the presence of tigers in the park, was attributed largely to rampant poaching and mismanagement.
