Increased big cat sightings may create spike in tourism in Northeast

India Today , Thursday, March 08, 2018
Correspondent : Maneesh Pandey
Have you seen tigers in the snow in India? You will now. There may be a compelling reason for tourists to head to the hills in the Northeast this coming summer, particularly to Arunachal Pradesh, as top tiger experts have pointed to a dozen big cat sightings in the upper reaches of Dibang Valley.

"This is an unusual news in the Indian context," said Dr Debabrata Swain, chief of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in Delhi. "There are at least a dozen tigers in Arunachal Pradesh, although we have confirmed samples of eight big cats with us. Our sampling will be intensified in the Northeast with more precise sighting methods during the ongoing tiger census. The possibility of some from across the border from Myanmar side also entering cannot be ruled out."

India is home to about 60 per cent of the world's tigers but they have been made vulnerable by habitat loss and demand for their body parts in China and other parts of Asia. Union minister for environment and forests Dr Harsh Vardhan told Mail Today that the government is hopeful of getting concrete data after the tiger census is completed by the end of the year.

"But it is clear that tigers' presence in the Northeast is beyond Assam now. Besides Arunachal, Manipur and Nagaland, we're also hearing of tigers in Dang area of Gujarat bordering Nashik in Maharashtra and also in Goa bordering Karnataka and Maharashtra. These are healthy signs in tiger conservation efforts by the ministry as new big cat habitats are emerging," he said.

Swain added that the possibility of tiger presence in Manipur and Nagaland along the Myanmar border and adjoining Arunachal Pradesh cannot be ruled out as there have been confirmed reports about a big cat death in Nagaland and a poaching case in Manipur.

At the moment, Assam's Kaziranga, Orang and Manas are three tiger reserves most sought after by tiger lovers in the Northeast. But with Arunachal, Manipur and Nagaland showing tangible signs of big cat' presence, tourists can explore new habitats, particularly the snow line homes of tigers in Dibang, NTCA officials said.

Encouraged by the Arunachal reports and local intelligence from Manipur and Nagaland, the agency plans to include these three states' forest reserves under an increased sampling process even as national tiger census is on.

Dr Harsh Vardhan added, "With reports of tigers' presence in the Northeast bordering other countries, we're thrusting hard on our bilateral conservation arrangements with Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh , Russia and China to save the big cats from poaching and killing for illegal trade of skin and other parts in southeast Asian market."

Elaborating on the expanding tiger habitats in India and possibility of a steady jump in tiger numbers in the 2018 census, Swain said, "You would be surprised to know that 30 per cent of the tiger population is outside the designated tiger reserveswe need to include more areas under tiger conservation zones as there is an increase expected over last census."

Experts say there are some tiger reserves waiting to get official status. "Among these are six possible ones for which advisories have already been sent to states.

These are Suhelwa in Uttar Pradesh, Nandhaur in Uttarakhand, Mhadei in Goa, Sonabeda in Goa, Srivilliputhur and Megamalai in Tamil Nadu. Areas like Pilibhit, Nandhaur and Brahmapur in Maharashtra are potential big cat habitats waiting to get their due and have the potential to carry big tiger population," a senior NTCA official said.

The Indian tiger population stands at 2,226 and going by the average six per cent annual increase, the 2018 National Tiger Census will show a nearly 2,600-strong big cat population, experts say The minister added that the government has also consistently increased the budget since 2014-15 financial year. "As against nearly `185 crore in 2014-15, the current Budget allocation for tiger conservation is Rs 350 crore," he said.

 
SOURCE : https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/increased-big-cat-sightings-may-create-spike-in-tourism-in-northeast-1184189-2018-03-08
 


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