The latest tiger census report has bad news for the Palamau Tiger Reserve in Jharkhand. It says that with Naxalites taking over the area, it was not possible to estimate the tiger population in the reserve.

A team of scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India could not find any sign of tigers in the single phase of survey they carried out in the region. And phase-II and phase-III surveys could not be carried out because of the Naxal presence in the area.

“The reserve did not report any tiger signs during the phase I survey. However, a questionnaire survey of phase-I data indicates tiger presence, which requires field verification for evaluating the status of the population. Due to this limitation, it was not possible to estimate the population size of tigers of this state,” says the census, a joint exercise by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Institute of India.

Environmentalists, who are worried about the dwindling population of tigers in the reserve, are now concerned over the lack of any definitive word on the number of tigers. Raghu Ram, an environmentalist working on wildlife conservation under the banner of ‘Paryavaran’ since 1990, said the core area of the Palamau reserve had been completely captured by Naxalites. “Three incidents of poaching and five cases of Naxalite violence were reported in 1975. Recent reports show these incidents have escalated so much that the forest staff don’t dare to enter the core area of the reserve,” he said.

... contd.