Nagpur: After a gap of nearly 25 years, the Painganga wildlife sanctuary in Yavatmal district has got a pair of breeding tigers, with male T1-C2 being joined by female T3-C2 from Pandharkawda territorial forest.
The last official record of two resident tigers in Painganga was in 1997. The female is said to be the sibling of T3-C1 aka Walker-II, which had reached Gautala Autramghat wildlife sanctuary, 70km from Aurangabad, traversing 2,100km.
APCCF & Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) field director MS Reddy said the female was sighted some 10-15 days ago in the park by staff and also by tourists from Adilabad. Both the siblings, T1-C1 aka Walker-I & T1-C2 had dispersed together in June 2019, from Tipeshwar sanctuary (148sqkm).
“While Walker went towards Telangana and again returned to Painganga and further moved to Dnyanganga, T1-C2 stayed put in Painganga and was very much in the sanctuary for a year-and-a-half. Now, he has been joined by a young female,” said Reddy.
According to Kharbi RFO Nitin Atpadkar, “Though T1-C2 was in Painganga, it was shy and rarely seen during patrolling. However, after the arrival of female T3-C2, the male has suddenly become active. Both were also seen mating several times. If all goes well, Painganga will turn a new leaf with the arrival of cubs in July.”
“We have been regularly patrolling and the area where tigers have been sighted is completely inviolate and free of habitation and grazing. In Kharbi range, there are six villages that need to be relocated but these habitations are over 10km away from the tiger-bearing area,” said Atpadkar.
Pandharkawda DFO (wildlife) Subhash Puranik said, “The dispersal of female T3-C2 crossing all hurdles and using small forest patches and perennial nullas show how important they are. Usually, farmers tend to clear them, causing conflict.”
“Though the distance between Tipeshwar and Painganga is 75km, T3-C2 must have traveled around 150km as migration study shows that tigers move towards Adilabad, Pimalgaon, Ambadi, and Kinwat to enter Painganga. The dispersal shows that it is a viable corridor and needs to be strengthened,” adds Puranik.
According to forest officials posted in Pandharkawda earlier, there was sporadic migration of tigers from Tipeshwar to Painganga. “Even if there were dispersals, they were not known due to the absence of advanced technology like camera traps and radio collars,” they said.
As reported by TOI, a report by NGO Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) said a tiger from Pandharkawda had travelled 150km to reach Kawal Tiger Reserve in Telangana in January 2016.
Later, on March 19, 2017, the forest department found that a tigress from Tipeshwar had dispersed to Painganga. Whereabouts of this tigress were not known as she moved further, deserting Painganga. In 2019, WII radio-collared T1-C1 that logged 3,020km to reach Dnyanganga.
“Due to the relocation of villages, Tipeshwar has become a source population of tigers, but its area is too small to hold a sizeable number of tigers. In Painganga, there are ungulates for tigers to survive. Tigers can boost the local economy by way of ecotourism. It is also high time Tipeshwar and Painganga (550sqkm) are combined to be notified as a tiger reserve for better management,” said wildlife photographer Sarosh Lodhi.