Pooluvapatti forest range of Coimbatore Forest Division, the birthplace of River Noyyal, is now home for a tiger.
Though pugmarks of the tiger were found in undisclosed locations of the forest range many times, the Forest Department has now confirmed the presence of a healthy male tiger, images of which were recorded in a camera trap recently. With this, Pooluvapatti has become the third forest range with tiger presence in Coimbatore Forest Division.
During the last national tiger estimation, the report of which was released early this July, camera traps recorded 11 individual tigers in Sirumugai and Mettupalayam forest ranges that are connected to the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) and the eastern slope of the Nilgiris that is linked to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
Quality of ecosystem
“Tiger presence indicates the quality of the ecosystem. Tigers naturally move away in search of a new territory around the age of two and the individual tiger recorded in Pooluvapatti range could have moved to a new ecosystem as part of dispersal of the population from other tiger inhabiting forests. The forests of Pooluvapatti range have a good prey base for tigers in the form of gaur and sambar,” said. I. Anwardeen, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle.
Field staff of the department had sighted the tiger two times before it was captured in a camera trap installed with the assistance of WWF India.
According to D. Venkatesh, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore Forest Division, Pooluvapatti forest range is gifted with thick and undisturbed forests.
“The sighting of a tiger is significant as Pooluvapatti forest range is located on the southern part of the Western Ghats, which is separated by the Palakkad gap from Nelliampathy forests, Parambikkulam Tiger Reserve and Anamalai Tiger Reserve,” he noted.
With tiger presence recorded in the forest range, Pooluvapatti forest range will have to be included in future tiger estimation exercises. “Sirumugai and Mettupalayam ranges, where 11 individual tigers were recorded during the national tiger estimation in 2018, are located on the northern part of Coimbatore Forest Division that are easily linked to STR. Pooluvapatti is located on the southernmost end of the forest division that is linked to a larger landscape that includes Mannarkkad Forest Division, Attapadi and Silent Valley in Kerala. The sighting of the tiger in the Noyyal watershed area also indicates good condition of the forest,” said D. Boominathan, landscape coordinator, WWF India.