NTCA eyes inter-state coordination to swell Similipal tiger population

Bhubaneswar: To maintain a sustained tiger population in Similipal Tiger Reserve, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has decided to hold an inter-state coordination meeting involving Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
This, NTCA hopes, will help develop the landscape in the border areas of the three states adjoining Similipal and establish connectivity with the ‘source’ (native) population. NTCA said this has been experimented in tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh such as Pench, Kanha and Bandhavgarh.
NTCA member secretary Anup Nayak said they want Similipal to be connected to central India. “Tigers travel far and wide across connecting landscape and look for newer territories. In case of Similipal, if we are able to connect it with the neighbouring forest by developing the landscape with effective management strategies, then we will have a sustained and viable tiger population,” Nayak said.
The Odisha government in 2016 had pegged the population of Royal Bengal Tigers in the state at 40 with 26 of them being in Similipal alone. The state government had separately conducted the tiger survey again that year, ostensibly to dispute the NTCA data which had put the tiger count at 28, four less than that of 2010 census.
NTCA said recently it sighted a tiger with its cub close to Similipal reserve but on the Jharkhand side. “This is an indication that tiger movement is there in the adjoining forest areas in the neighbouring state. The landscape management thus is necessary to sustain tiger population in Similipal,” Nayak added.
According to NTCA’s plans, the villagers, officials of wildlife wing, NGOs and others will be involved in a capacity building workshop either in Odisha or Jharkhand to discuss how to develop the landscape so as to establish a connection with Similipal.
The state government’s census had also revealed that camera traps captured three melanistic (black stripe) tigers in Similipal, which is claimed to be the only reserve in the world having such tigers.
The NTCA said besides Similipal, the Sunabeda wildlife sanctuary in Nuapada district has also scope for development of tiger habitat.