Government to tap Tillary as tiger habitat

The state government is planning to declare a patch of evergreen forests at Tillari in the Konkan as a wildlife sanctuary to develop it as a tiger habitat.

The area in Sindhudurg, which is nestled in the Western Ghats on the cusp of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka, can be used to develop the source tiger population for the Sahyadri tiger reserve, which has just around seven tigers.

The tiger population in the Sahyadri reserve is connected with the source population down south in Goa and Karnataka through the Radhanagari sanctuary and Western Ghat ridges. Tillari falls in this corridor and its development as a tiger habitat is will help the larger programme to repopulate the Sahyadri project, which spans Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and parts of Ratnagiri, with the big cats.

"The state forest department is considering a proposal to convert Tillari into a wildlife sanctuary. This will enhance the protection status offered to it," said a senior forest department official, adding that additional staff would also be deployed. At present, Tillari falls under the Sawantwadi territorial forest division, which leads to lesser focus on issues like habitat development, protection and conservation.

"We have set camera traps and so far, they have managed to capture the presence of two tigers and around four cubs in the area," the official said. "Once Tillari is converted to a wildlife sanctuary, the department will be able to develop it as a habitat and corridor. This Tillari wildlife sanctuary will be pivotal in the long-term conservation of the Western Ghats region," the official noted.

However, officials said that the proposal had run afoul of a powerful lobby in Sindhudurg, including planters who had converted forest patches to rubber and pineapple plantations and power-fenced it, thus affecting wildlife movement. "They fear that the eco-sensitive zone of the proposed wildlife sanctuary will affect these plantations," an official said, adding that hence, the plans for the sanctuary were trimmed down from the initial 57 sqkm to just around 26 sqkm.

The official said while the area of this proposed sanctuary alone could not be adequate for a large tiger population despite the rich habitat, the big cats would also use the nearby forest patches. "They will not be restricted to this area alone. They can move around in the buffer of the Sahyadri reserve and the corridor. They can move across borders to Mhadei wildlife sanctuary (North Goa) and Bhimgad (Karnataka)," he explained.

While a tigress marks out around 10 to 15 sqkm of territory, these territorial markings could come down to around 8 to 6 sqkm in a rich habitat with a good prey base and walkways. Males, who prominently mark their territory, need around 25 to 40 sqkm area.

The number of tigers in the Sahyadri tiger reserve is low as the big cats do not breed there due to problems like the poor prey base in the Koyna sanctuary and weak links in the corridor connecting the reserve with the source population down south. The authorities are planning to tentatively translocate six animals to the reserve, including four females and two males, from Chandrapur in Vidarbha.

Tiger translocation has helped enhance tiger population in reserves like Panna and Sariska, where poaching had wiped off these big cats. Cambodia, where tigers are extinct, had sought India's help to re-introduce them.

Maharashtra has six tiger reserves. The tiger census, results for which were released in 2014, have said India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. Maharashtra has around 190 such big cats, more than the figure of 169 in 2010.