Saturday, August 29, 2009

Kaziranga losing its hold on tigers

Kaziranga losing its hold on tigers

Satyajit Usham

Fri, Aug 28, 2009 12:34:39 IST

THOUGH KAZIRANGA National Park in the Northeastern state of India- Assam, still holds the unique distinction of being the only wildlife sanctuary having highest density of tiger population in the country, with report of six to seven tiger deaths on an average every year, the day would not be far when there would be no tiger left in the park even as tiger deaths continue at an alarming rate elsewhere in the country.

There are currently 24.5 tigers per sq km in Kaziranga National Park as against the other tiger reserved areas of the country, which is around 17 to 18 per 100 sq km.

According to a report, though thepark famed for one-horned rhino, can still boost of highest density of tiger population in the country, the number of deaths of the royal big cats has been on the rise every year.

The report revealed that 11 tigers have been killed in the last 10 months. Between November 2008 and January 2009, about nine tigers were killed totalling the figure of tiger casualties in the park to 11 from November 2008 to August 2009.

Causes of deaths of tiger in Kaziranga Park have been attributed to several reasons like poaching, infighting and tiger-human conflict.

In addition to this, poisoning by villagers living on the fringes and shrinking of the habitat area have forced the big cats to stray into the neighbouring area thus resulting in retaliatory killing.

Taking serious note of