Occupying only 7% of their historical range and confined to forested habitats interspersed in a matrix of human dominated landscapes, tigers (Panthera tigris) typify the problems faced by most large carnivores worldwide. With heads of governments of tiger range countries pledging to reverse the extinction process and setting a goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022, achieving this target would require identifying existing breeding cores, potential breeding habitats and opportunities for dispersal.

PANJIM: The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has taken up a program to save vultures from getting extinct. Under this program, 30 young vultures will be ready to fly by year 2014.

Dr Asad Rehmani, a senior member of National Board for Willdlife and Director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) said that the 30 young vultures will be released from the breeding facilities to the demarcated safe zones at three places.

Deeply concerned about the recent intrusions of poachers in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), the honourary warden of CTR and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) member Brijendra Singh requ

NEW DELHI, 24 JUNE: Despite nationwide movements and campaigns to save tigers, 48 tigers have been reported dead in the first six months of this year and 19 cases have been clearly stated as cases

Corbett National Park (Uttarakhand) Security in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) was recently breached by gangs of poachers belonging to five different communities.

“This is unprecedented,” said S.K. Datta, chief conservator of forest, wildlife and intelligence in Uttarakhand. “The local Sapera, Kanjar and Bawariya communities joined hands with members of the Bagdi community which hails from Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, with the members of the Bagariya tribe which hails from districts in Rajasthan and Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, to enter the CTR with the intention of poaching.”

Wildlife activists are alleging that four tigers, including three cubs, have died in the Corbett national park since June 7, but officials are trying to conceal these deaths.

At a time when the tiger population is fast dwindling, India has reported an alarming increase in tiger deaths.

Corbett Tiger Reserve may boast of the world’s highest density of tigers but it is beset by a host of problems that may soon see it lose its premier status.
CTR’s director Rajan Mishra admits that CTR has witnessed an intensification of man-animal conflict with as many as eight humans being killed by a man-eater in 2010.

One of the main reasons for this conflict is the massive construction of hotels and luxury villas blocking of the entire eastern boundary with only two passages available for wildlife to approach the Kosi river.

Recent revelations of presence of poachers in the Corbett national park have elicited the focus of department officials and strong reactions from wildlife activists.

India’s tiger fatalities are rising steadily. The country has lost 48 tigers in the last 22 weeks. The largest number of tigers have been killed in the premier Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand and in the Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has confirmed that 19 of these deaths are clear-cut cases of poaching but wildlife experts claim poaching deaths could be much higher.

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