29 tigers present in Dibang block: Report
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If the environment ministry really considers the tiger to be an important species, it will not consider projects which will be disastrous for the tiger habitat here.
ANOKO MEGA, Arunachal Pradesh Wildlife Advisory Board member
“Some of the prey cross the Talon river or are found in abundance along the river like the Mishmi Takin. If the environment ministry really considers the tiger to be an important species, it will not consider projects which will be disastrous for the tiger habitat here. The community had always known there were tigers here,” said Mega. “If at all a tiger reserve is declared here, the boundary should be demarcated after consulting local people so that there is no impact on human habitation.”
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) researchers identified 11 individual tigers, including two cubs, during a three-year camera trap-based study in the sanctuary and the Mishmi hills. They published their findings in the Journal of Threatened Taxa in 2018. But WII, in a report titled Wildlife Conservation Plan for the Impact Zone of Etalin HEP, said there was no tiger presence in the project area.
Environment ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee in its factsheet had said Etalin Hydropower project is located in subtropical evergreen and rain forests and in a vital tiger area.
The Idu Mishmi Cultural & Literary Society (IMCLS) wrote to NTCA and the Union environment, forests & climate change ministry in 2018, saying the community should be consulted before proceeding with notifying the sanctuary as a tiger reserve. “Based on years of empirical research on ecological and social aspects of tigers in Dibang Valley, we strongly believe that the right strategy for Dibang tigers would be to develop a new kind of tiger reserve that is built not with fences and armed patrol guards, but around a cultural model, a culture which has so far proven to be effective in saving the tiger,” wrote IMCLS.
The 2018 NTCA report said Arunachal Pradesh has large contiguous forests over 136,000 km, which include Pakke Tiger Reserves, Tale Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, Mouling National Park, D’ering Wildlife Sanctuary, Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary, and Kamlamg and Namdapha Tiger Reserve.
“Compared to earlier surveys, this landscape unit shows a persisting low-density tiger population…the largest tiger population of Arunachal Pradesh is within pockets of this landscape,” it said.
The report added the 1,811 km Trans Arunachal Highway will become a barrier for the movement of the wildlife species in several of these corridors.
One in every three tigers in India lives outside reserves, according to the report, highlighting the challenge of protecting India’s national animal and reducing instances of man-animal conflict. The proportion has increased from around one in every four tigers living outside reserves, according to a 2014 study.
India recorded a 33% increase in tiger numbers from 2014 to 2018, according to the summary of the report, All India Tiger Estimation Results, released last year. There were 2,967 tigers in 2018, compared to 2,226 in 2014.
No tigers were recorded in Mizoram’s Dampa and West Bengal’s Buxa tiger reserves while they face the severe threat of local extinction in Jharkhand’s Palamau reserve, according to the report. Corbett Tiger Reserve, which is among reserves at or nearing capacity, had the largest population of tigers—about 231—in 2018, the report said.