Why are tigers dying in Nilgiris district

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• A total of 10 tigers (six cubs and four adults) have died in the Nilgiris since the middle of August. The inability of the state forest department to trace the whereabouts of the two mother tigresses has raised concerns among conservationists about the welfare of the animals.

The instances

• The first reported tiger deaths occurred on August 16 in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in Siriyur.
• After conducting a postmortem on the remains, forest department officials said that they suspect that the cubs, believed to be only two weeks old, could have died due to starvation or umbilical infection.
• The second death was suspected by the officials due to injuries after fighting with another animal. Another suspected incident of the tigers, a sub-adult, was found with injury marks, indicating that it too died due to a fight with another animal.
• After an investigation, a man was arrested for poisoning the carcass of the cow in retaliation for the tiger hunting the animal.

The concern

• In February this year, the forest department arrested four poachers from Rajasthan who had allegedly poached a tiger in the areas surrounding a few kilometres away from where the two tigers were found dead.
• In addition, the inability of the forest department to track down the two mothers of the six tiger cubs that died in Siriyur and Kadanad has raised concerns over their well-being.
• Camera traps and tiger trackers continue to look for the animals, but with little luck.
• One of the theories put forward by senior forest department officials is that the high density of tigers in the Mudumalai-Bandipur-Nagarhole complex of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is pushing populations into the surrounding habitats in the Mukurthi National Park, Nilgiris and Gudalur forest divisions.
• This leads to increased competition between animals and more fighting, resulting in more deaths.
• Conservationists worry that this increase in population could lead to more negative human-animal interactions in the near future.
• They emphasise the need to regenerate degraded habitats that can be re-colonised by the tigers’ prey such as Sambar, spotted deer and the Indian gaur.

The response

• To allay fears that poachers could be targeting tigers, the forest department plans to set up anti-poaching camps in six forest ranges surrounding the Mukurthi National Park.
• There are also plans to begin annual monitoring of tiger populations in the Nilgiris Forest Division, with the population size, range of each individual animal and other parameters to be recorded for better management.
• They have also increased perambulation of areas surrounding key tiger habitats in Mukurthi and Mudumalai.

Conclusion

• The process of tiger conservation should be more dynamic and compatible with the future possibilities of climatic changes as well.