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Lone Tigress Sparks Hope in Vanished Reserve
8 Jun
Summary
- A tigress named Paheli's arrival offers hope for Udanti-Sitanadi.
- The reserve saw its tiger population disappear over decades.
- Habitat improvement and prey restoration efforts are underway.
A lone tigress, dubbed 'Paheli' by officials, has arrived in Chhattisgarh's Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR), sparking renewed hope for its tiger population. This tigress's successful survival through the summer months, a period of scarcity, suggests the reserve's habitat might once again support a breeding tiger population.
USTR has a troubled conservation history, with its tiger numbers plummeting from 18 in 1998 to none by 2023. Wild buffalo and other prey populations also drastically declined. Merged in 2009, the reserve briefly saw numbers rise to eight, but they soon vanished, leaving it a transit area for big cats.
Officials are implementing intensive monitoring, including foot patrols, camera trapping, and drone surveillance, with plans for radio-collaring Paheli. Habitat improvement projects, such as developing grasslands and creating water bodies, are in progress. Significant efforts have been made to clear encroached land and intensify anti-poaching operations, including inter-state collaborations.
With approval to translocate tigers from Madhya Pradesh, the focus is on enhancing prey availability. Concurrently, conservation efforts are underway to revive the wild buffalo population, with three females recently brought from Assam for release.
