IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Ramesh, K.; Johnson, J.A.; Gurjar, R.L.; Gawande, P.J.; Parmar, R.N.; Polei, N.C.; Mathur, V.B.; Qureshi, Q.; Jhala, Y.V. | |
| Status of tiger and its prey species in Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh | |
| 2009 Full Book | |
Status of tiger population and its prey species was assessed in Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR), Madhya Pradesh during November 2008 - March 2009. The sampling design and data collection protocols were broadly adopted from the Phase - I (Occupancy Survey) and Phase - II (Abundance Estimation) strategies employed by the All India Tiger Population Estimation and Monitoring Project. Following a reconnaissance survey, 128 survey routes covering 369km and 119 line transects covering 186 km were sampled across the Reserve for establishing occupancy of tiger and prey abundance estimation respectively. Tiger sign was recorded in 15 out of 54 beats, which translated into naive occupancy of 0.3 (i.e. 30%). Bias corrected occupancy estimate was 0.8, but had high standard error (0.4) and low detection probability (0.2), reflecting that although the occupancy was widespread, it was rare and inconsistent. Only one male tiger was photographed in the intensive camera trap efforts of 1400 traps days over 40 sampling locations spread across the core area. Even this male was not found subsequently, and the last confirmed evidence of tiger occurrence in PTR was on 31 January 2009, although reliable information of tiger presence outside the Reserve was recorded in the following months. Prey species were found to be distributed in reasonable densities, and the overall prey density was 48 animal/km2, represented by Nilgai (17.60/km2), Chital (13.9/km2), Sambar (12/km2), Chinkara (6.2/km2) and Wild Pig (1.6/km2). Disturbance was not a major issue in the core habitats, but the peripheral areas suffer from wood cutting and cattle grazing. Given the availability of appropriate ecological condition i.e. high prey density and low disturbance level, tiger loss in PTR relates to overpowering pressure on its population and physical removal of individuals, either in the Reserve itself or when strayed into the adjoining territorial forest where the condition is hostile. It is, therefore, important to place tiger conservation in PTR in the landscape context, addressing the problem along periphery and in the adjoining territorial forests. |
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