Eight tiger cubs born in Valmiki since 2005
Valmiki (Bihar): Amid reports of decline in tiger numbers across India, positive news has emerged from the once-neglected Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, along the Indo-Nepal border. At least eight cubs have been born in the reserve since 2005, including two new cubs whose sightings were reported from the eastern part, earlier this month.
However, confirmation of the new litter from the Forest Department is awaited. “We were informed about the two cubs by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) officials. We have mobilised teams in the field to verify it,” said S Chandrashekhar, Divisional Forest Officer, Valmiki.
The news has nevertheless excited conservationists who have been working to re-establish Valmiki as a viable tiger habitat. Declared a tiger reserve in 1994, Valmiki’s wildlife had suffered due to general lack of enforcement, and neglect. In 2003, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), joined hands with the Bihar Forest Department, to set up a long-term recovery plan for tigers through its Valmiki Conservation Project.
“Valmiki has bounced back, and this (birth of tiger cubs) is the evidence. It could very well be true. However, this does not leave space for complacence; a lot remains to be done,” said Samir Kumar Sinha, Assistant Manager, WTI, who manages the field implementation of the project.
Valmiki Tiger Reserve is surrounded by about 140 villages, whose residents still depend on forest resources. A cluster of 22 villages in the Done valley – an incursion into the core area, poses one of the gravest threats to the tiger reserve. The Valmiki Conservation Project promotes community-based conservation and eco-development in these villages to reduce their dependence on the forests. Likewise, training and equipping frontline forest staff, and scientific studies of tiger and prey species, are also conducted by this project.
The first of these cubs were photographed in November 2005 in a camera trap survey undertaken as part of WTI’s Valmiki Conservation Project.
“We kept track of these two cubs till they dispersed to establish their own territories. In 2007, the mother of these cubs produced another litter of two cubs, one of which has been captured through our camera traps in March 2008. And then there was a litter of two cubs by another tigress in the southeastern part of Gonauli Forest Range,” said Sinha. “The latest tiger cubs sightings were reported from the easternmost part of the park, far away from the sites where other cubs were conceived. This, if confirmed, would indicate that they belong to a different breeding female.”
Sinha also pointed out that the Supreme Court’s 2002 directive against mining in protected areas, had benefited wild animals in the area.
“In the past, Pandai river lying in the eastern part of the tiger reserve was mined for boulders. Now that mining has been stopped here, the wildlife is making a comeback in this area as well.”
Learn about Valmiki Conservation Project
Related stories:
