Tiger Surveillance work in Katerniaghat makes news

Expressindia » Story

The wall of fame
Express news service
Posted online: Saturday ,
December 29, 2007

Tiger population going upWill the state make up for the big cats lost in neighbouring Rajasthan?

The year 2007 brought good news for the animal lovers in Uttar Pradesh. An effort that was started in 2006, finally bore fruits in 2007, with the number of tigers showing a rise in the Katraniaghat reserved forest sanctuary. According to a rough estimate, there are at least 50 tigers in this reserved sanctuary. The number has gone up by six in one year alone — all thanks to tiger track maintained by forest officials in the dense Katraniaghat range. Conceptualised by Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ramesh Kumar Pandey (left) last year, a tiger track ensures an undisturbed movement for the big cat. First a track was identified inside the forest where frequent movement of tigers was recorded. It was then maintained properly and human and vehicular movement was restricted on it. “Tigers unusually move on a selected path and in case someone encroaches on it they get disturbed,” said Pandey. The tiger track also helped ascertain the actual number of tigers, as forest guards were deployed for the mapping of pugmarks throughout the year. Wildlife experts and forest officials have accepted the tiger track as a means to protect tigers. After Katraniaghat, tiger tracks were identified in the forest range of Nishangarha and Motipur range of Behraich district. Now, the Suhelwa range of Balrampur district is on the job.

(As published in Indian Express, Lucknow)

Tiger died in a road accident

On 4th of this month a tiger got seriously injured in a road accident near Nainiha village in Motipur range of Katerniaghat Wildlife Division. The forest staff and officials were on their toes to rescue the tiger. The tiger was critically injured. He had serious internal injuries in back portion,therefore, was unable to move further. He was sitting just below the newly upgraded Assam road which passes through the Buffer area of the Katerniaghat Wildlife Division. The tiger was not much agile but was trying to move further . For it he used to stand up after an hour or two but could never walk through.The most difficult task at that point of time was to tackle the mob who wanted just to see the tiger in an un-natural wild. It was a full grown tiger; healthy and fascinating as usual. The nearby villagers had surrounded the area and wanted to go nearer to the animal which was dangerous for the human life and harmful for the ailing beast. Our effort was to save the life of animal as well as of villagers. We had arranged all the required equipments on the spot like ropes, nets, khabar, bamboo, baits, tranquillizing gun, iron cage and sufficient workforce. Since the tiger was agile hence it was impossible to go near the tiger. It was not possible to rescue the animal by khabar or any thing else. It was decided to tranquillize the animal and rescue in iron cage. Next day early morning we started rescue operation with the help of Dr Utkarsh Shukla and tranquillized the animal with in two hours only. We started the treatment of the animal immediately and rushed to the Lucknow Zoo for further treatment where he could not fight the battle of life for a long time. Our all efforts went in to vain. It was a great loss for all of us. Despite our all best possible efforts the life of the tiger could not be saved.

Come and join us..

I have spent more than five years of time working in wildlife areas particularly in Terai of Uttar Pradesh. I feel myself lucky enough to get the opportunity to work in an area which is the second best tiger habitat in the country i.e. Pilibhit-Kishanpur-Dudhwa-Katerniaghat corridor. Its a more than 350 km. of stretch, though fragmented, which has the most fascinating fauna of this country including tigers, leopards, elephants, one horned rhinoceros, sloath bears, gharials, gangetic dolphins, five types of deers and more than 450 types of bird species.
I still remember, when I was in Pilibhit, once Dr Johnsingh from WII Dehradun came to Barahi forest rest house with Dr Goyal. It was a foggy winter night. Dr Johnsingh was surveying the Indo-Nepal terai forests for Terai Arc Landscape Project and his team was there on the task to collect the relevant data. That was the year when we had seriously started the wildlife conservation work in a non Protected Area with the help of WWF-India. Dr. Harish was also with us. Dr Johnsingh discussed and narrated a lot about Indian Terai and wildlife status in the area. After having dinner with them, when I started my journey back to the divisional head quarter he said me " you must write diary", because field officers do a lot in the field but they never record it, they hardly write or disseminate it. It was a very valid point. It struck me immediately. It always haunted me even for years but unfortunately I could not follow it.........

Now after more than 4 years, remembering the same words of Dr Johnsingh I am trying to jot down the facts and events which I observe in the field, efforts which we sincerely made to protect and conserve our natural heritage, what ever I heartily feel about or something which is worth writing for you all to know about...either as a blog.

That is all hesitatingly in this first post.