GUWAHATI: The tiger population at Assam’s Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve has increased three-fold in the last 10 years for which the park has bagged the first-ever international award for conservation excellence.
From 10, the big cat count at the park has increased to 30 in ten years. The primary reason that has been attributed for this achievement is smart patrolling, which includes Android-based monitoring software M-STeIPES.
“This achievement has been the result of very coherent team work by many extremely dedicated forest personnel and sincere efforts of some wildlife NGOs,” field director of Manas Tiger Project Amal Chandra Sarmah told TOI.
He said due to continuous and sincere work of the park authorities, the number of tigers at the park has increased from 10 in 2010 to 30 in 2020, which includes 26 adults and 4 cubs. Similarly, the population of rhinos, which was zero in 2001-2 during “extremist” movement in Bodoland, has now increased to 44, Sarmah added.
“This commendable performance has been a possible due to adoption of smart patrolling like that of M-STeIPES and regular vehicle and boat patrolling. As a result of this, there has been no incidence of rhino poaching inside the park since 2016,” Sarmah said, adding the award has lifted the spirits of the frontline staff in continuing their duties with more enthusiasm in future.
The award has been jointly conferred on Manas National Park and its Bhutanese counterpart the Royal Manas National Park during a virtual award ceremony organized on Monday.
“This honour bestowed upon the tiger reserve has recognized years of hard work and conservation efforts of the Manas Tiger Project,” Sarmah said. He added that the population of all other carnivores, as well as herbivores, have significantly increased in the past few years.
“Manas provides habitat to 22 of India’s most threatened species of mammals. This includes 1034 elephants, 12 clouded leopards, five black panthers, 400 golden langurs, 502 wild buffalos and 706 Indian bisons. Recently, the park has also translocated two wild buffaloes to Chhattisgarh and also started a pygmy hog reintroduction programme,” Sarmah added.
The Manas National Park is situated at Baksa district, about 140 km away from Guwahati.