Wildlifers call for joint efforts for tiger protection

KERI: The recent news about the presence of five tigers in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary has gladdened the hearts of wildlifers who now want Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka to make joint efforts towards protecting and conserving their population in the area.

The presence of the tigers was detected through the systematic efforts of the range forest officer Prakash Salelkar by way of the camera-trap technique.

In 1999, 208 sq km of the Mhadei region in the Western Ghats area of Sattari was notified as a wildlife sanctuary, mainly due to its potential for becoming one of the finest tiger habitats in India and the world as the forests here are the only tiger corridors between the

Bhimgad

wildlife sanctuary and the Anshi-Dandeli tiger reserve of Karnataka, and the reserve forests of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra.

Girish Punjabi, who is working in the Tillari region in collaboration with the Maharashtra Forest Department and Wildlife Research and Conservation Society told TOI, “Tillari comprises of unprotected forests (reserved and private forest) of approximately 300 sq km area, abutting the Mhadei and Bhimgad wildlife sanctuaries. The area has reasonably high prey densities and a breeding population of tigers, different from those in Mhadei or Bhimgad”.

“The region is a critical pinch point to connect PAs of Goa and Karnataka with Radhanagari wildlife sanctuary in Maharashtra. Radhanagari is a UNESCO world heritage site,” Punjabi added.

Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka should show strong commitment for protecting these last remaining tiger bearing forests in the northern Western Ghats, Punbaji said, and added that till date two adult tigers, three sub-adults, and three cubs have been identified from the Tillari area.

Honorary wildlife warden, Belgavi, Sachin Patil reiterated the need to urgent protect the Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary which is an important wildlife habitat.

Principal chief conservator of forests Ajay Saxena said, “We will speak with forest officials from Karnataka and Maharashtra and make the necessary efforts towards protecting the big cats.”