Forest deep mountain high

Sisir Behera, a young forest personnel in the rank of deputy range officer, posted at Kabatghai, a core area of Similipal Tiger Reserve, has no remorse working day and night in an isolated terrain protecting tigers and other animals.

The vast core of Similipal, the only habitat in the world to house melanistic tigers, spread across 1194sqkm, is an enigma to the outside world. “It is a challenge to keep the core protected from all sides. From 0°C during winters to around 40°C in summers, one will have to acclimatise oneself to extreme weather. There can be no excuse as at any given time, you may be required to move into the forest from your base to look for poachers or, because of animals’ movement, rescue trapped personnel or vehicles. You are tasked with making the core habitable for the wild animals,” Sisir said.

Core value
The core area, with its unique composition of different types of forests such as northern tropical mixed deciduous forest, northern tropical semi-evergreen forest, mixed deciduous hill forest, high level sal forest, dry deciduous sal forest, plain sal forest, grassland and savannas, remains out of bounds for tourists. The area’s natural vast meadow on the valleys and plateaus provide a robust 1,100 hectare grazing ground to the prey. The vast region houses 27 adult tigers, of which 15 are melanistic ones, varieties of prey animals, reptiles, birds and floras. It must remain sacrosanct for the survival of the tigers which are often the target of poachers.

Poacher menace
Ritesh Resh Bagh, a deputy ranger stationed at Bhanjabasa, a range of core area, said, “During summer, poachers usually try to enter the core of Similipal in the afternoon and early in the morning during monsoons. Operating in the core area in monsoon is always fraught with risk because of lightning strikes, snakes and leech. The Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) personnel are trained to deal with any critical situation. Poachers come in groups of 20-30. The professional ones come in a group of 5-7. So, our strategies to counter them differ.”
The wildlife personnel often need to outsmart the poachers who also use walkie-talkies and camp in the core area for days. The poachers also know how to make guns and bombs.

Big cat presence
In 2014 and 2018, according to the All India Tiger Estimation, all the tigers identified were in the southern core, which consists of Jenabil, UBK, National Park and Bhanjabasa. These are considered as the core of the core area. They are devoid of villages and have proved to be excellent ground for breeding of tigers. As the number of tigers increased, the young males dispersed into the northern core, comprising Nawna (south), Nawna (north), Pithabata-south and Chahala. The estimate in 2022 showed for the first time a male tiger (T26) in north Similipal. “In our state census, the number of big cats in north Similipal further increased. Now, six tigers were spotted in the northern core, of which, T34, T24 and T40 are females and T26, T44 and T46 are males,” Similipal field director Prakash Gogineni said.

Tech help
Camera traps have been deployed in the core area for capturing the daily movement of tigers. A special tiger cell that at the field director’s office analyses all photographs captured by the camera traps and checks the presence and status of tigers. As per the standard operating procedure issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, phase-IV monitoring of tigers, co-predators and prey species is carried out twice each year - before and after monsoon. During this exercise, an exhaustive task on the presence and movement of tigers is carried out.
Apart from that, the field staff also record the physical signs of tiger presence like direct sightings, growling and roaring sound and indirect
signs.