Forest officials from Mancherial tour Tipeshwar Tiger Reserve to study conservation of big cats

Spread in 148.63 square kilometers, Tippeshwar is seeing the thriving of tigers. It is also one of the most-sought-after destinations for nature lovers.

Mancherial: Officials of the forest department toured Tipeshwar Tiger Reserve (TTR) in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra to study efforts in conservation of tigers, creation of employment to locals and to attract tourists.

A team of officials comprising Mancherial FDO Sarveshwar, FROs Rathnakar Rao, Subhash and nine FBOs visited the TTR recently. Spread in 148.63 square kilometers, Tippeshwar is seeing the thriving of tigers. It is also one of the most-sought-after destinations for nature lovers. Dwellers of forest fringe villages were actively involved in conservation of tigers.

---

“The objective of the one-day long tour was to study measures being taken by the forest officials of the forest department to conserve tigers, create livelihood to locals and attract tourists. The successful measures will be emulated in Kawal Tiger Reserve, which is unable to see inhabitation of tigers,” FDO Sarveshwar said.

The officials stated that they interacted with the authorities of the reserve, in particular field biologist Dr Ramzan Virani who was playing an instrumental role in the growth of the population of tigers in Tipeshwar. They learnt about effective ways, management of resources, improvement of habitat, participation of tribals in conservation and facilities extended to tourists.

Kawal is the 41st reserve of the country created in 2012. The core of the reserve spreads in 893 sq km, the buffer zone spans 1,120 sq km. The reserve registered poaching of two tigers in 2018. No tiger has resided in the reserve since then. A migrant tiger stayed in Kaddampeddur range for a brief period in 2022.

The national tiger conservation authority in the status of tigers-2022 pointed out that no tigers were detected in the reserve except for a few individuals in Kaghaznagar forest division. However, another tiger of Maharashtra’s Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve entered the reserve recently, cheering officials of the forest department.

The Forest department of Telangana has planned to approach the Maharashtra forest department with an appeal to offer a tiger and tigress or a few cubs to increase the tiger population in the Kawal Tiger Reserve. It also mulled to rope in officials of the forest department to train staffers in preventing poaching and conservation of tigers.