Latest news with #RanjanMishra
Time of India
28-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
Corbett, Rajaji nearing saturation, but half of tiger reserves operating below capacity
Dehradun: Nearly 50% of India's tiger reserves are operating below their carrying capacity, but in Uttarakhand, reserves like Corbett and Rajaji are nearing saturation, raising concerns of increased human-wildlife conflict as tigers begin moving into non-protected areas. Wildlife experts said that unless habitat quality improves in low-density reserves across the country, the growing tiger population could soon become unmanageable. The warning comes ahead of International Tiger Day, observed on Tuesday. "Nationwide reserves with historically low tiger densities due to habitat degradation or fragmentation must now be urgently restored to accommodate spillover from saturated zones. Without serious habitat restoration, rising tiger numbers will become unmanageable," said Qamar Qureshi, former senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and co-author of the All-India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2022. "Poaching and conflict are major concerns. Habitat rewilding takes 8–10 years to show results. We are already late." In Uttarakhand, which now hosts an estimated 560 tigers — including around 260 in Corbett and approximately 54 in Rajaji — officials said the pressure is increasing. "With Corbett and eastern Rajaji nearing full capacity, tigers are beginning to move into non-protected areas, increasing the likelihood of conflicts," a senior IFS officer said. A preliminary WII report on the carrying capacity of tiger reserves in the state highlights this shift. Though yet to be finalised, the report suggests that Corbett can support 20 tigers per 100sqkm, eastern Rajaji 14, and western Rajaji just eight per 100sqkm, forest officials said. "Corbett and eastern Rajaji are nearing saturation. They offer the best habitat and, as a result, the tiger population is increasing," said Ranjan Mishra, chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand. India's tiger population rose to 3,682 in the 2022 estimation, making up over 70% of the world's wild tiger count. However, experts warn that without parallel investment in habitat restoration and connectivity corridors, the growing numbers could become unsustainable. The National Tiger Conservation Authority has identified habitat saturation and lack of buffer space as emerging risks in states with high tiger densities, including Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. The rising population is also shifting fatality trends. Tigers have caused more human deaths (9) than leopards (6) in the state so far this year, reversing the usual pattern. "The rising tiger population is both an asset and a responsibility for Uttarakhand," Mishra said.
Time of India
06-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
5 Corbett tigers to be moved to Rajaji in relocation phase-2
Dehradun: The Uttarakhand forest department will translocate five more tigers to Western Rajaji from Corbett to ease pressure on the densely populated reserve and help revive tiger presence in the new habitat. The move forms the second phase of the rewilding project and follows the relocation of five tigers between 2020 and 2025, one of which gave birth to four cubs, two now living in the wild. Rajaji Tiger Reserve, formed in 2015, spans around 820sqkm in the Shivalik foothills and is split by the Ganga into eastern and western zones. Until 2020, Western Rajaji had no breeding tigress, largely due to habitat fragmentation caused by NH-58 and the Haridwar–Dehradun railway line. Principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden, Ranjan Mishra, said they had discussed the proposal with NTCA officials and would now seek formal clearance. "The status of clearances and specifications from NTCA will determine the next course of actions," he said. Head of forest force and principal chief conservator of forests, Samir Sinha, said the relocated big cats from the first phase were adapting well. "The movement of big cats indicates that wildlife corridors and forest stretches are connected, and it's encouraging to see that the newly constructed wildlife underpasses are facilitating animal movement," he said. Officials expressed concern about forest patches around densely populated areas such as Rishikesh, Nepali Farm, and Buggawala, where people were not yet accustomed to coexisting with tigers. Forest officials in Uttar Pradesh were asked to install camera traps to study tiger dispersal trends and frame future conservation strategies. They told their counterparts in Uttarakhand that the work would start after the forest fire season. The first phase of relocation included enclosures and monitoring with radio collars and camera traps by teams from WWF-India, WII, and the forest department. Since then, tiger movement has also been recorded in the lower Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh. A senior wildlife scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India reiterated the need for joint efforts by four states — Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Uttarakhand — to support the re-colonisation of tigers across the Western Himalayan foothills, which once had a thriving tiger population. Uttarakhand ranked third in the country with an estimated 560 tigers, as per the 2022 tiger estimation exercise by NTCA and Wildlife Institute of India.
