Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is tiger kingdom of the State

E M Manoj, Kalpetta
The Hindu, May 15, 2019

Here tigers roam without fear, and it shows in their numbers.
A monitoring programme of the Forest Department for 2017-18 has found that the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) , a biodiversity hotspot in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, holds the largest tiger population in the State.
The study was organised in association with the Parambikulam and Periyar Tiger Conservation Foundations.

75 in sanctuary

“Of the total 176 tigers in the State, 75 were identified from the WWS, which is part of a large forest complex holding the single largest population of tigers in India,” B.N. Anjan Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), said of the study.
Nine tigers had also been captured by camera stations set up at the North and South Wayanad forest divisions.

Periyar, Parambikulam

The Periyar and Parambikulam tiger reserves followed suit, where 25 tigers each were captured in camera traps, Mr. Kumar said.
“There are no tigers in the Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary and the adjoining Kottayam and Kothamangalam forest divisions as the landscape is cut off from the adjacent mainland (Munnar and Malayattoor forest divisions). The Kasaragod forest division is highly fragmented and degraded and does not show tiger evidence,” he said. Camera traps, where tigers are identified from photographs based on unique stripe patterns, were used to count the tiger population, Mr. Kumar, who supervised the project, said.
The forest area in the State was divided into 10 landscapes and 1,640 camera traps were set up.
It took nearly a year-and-a-half to complete the project. Close to 500 trained front line forest staff participated in the endeavour.
The Nilambur North and South forest divisions were excluded from the study as camera traps could not be set up in the forests due to Maoist issues. These areas are expected to support a good tiger population.
“Demographic simulation suggests that cubs (below one year) may comprise roughly 25% of a healthy tiger population. However, cubs are not included in the data as they have to reach three years of age (mortality rate of cubs is high). Thus, the forests are home to about 250 individuals that may or may not be part of home ranges within the Kerala forests,” he said.

Potential for reserve

“As the WWS and the adjoining tiger reserves in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu constitute a major tiger habitat in the country, the sanctuary has the potential to get the status of a tiger reserve. Such an initiative needs the support of the public,” says Chief Wildlife Warden Surendra Kumar.
Such a move would help get more funds to effectively implement projects to mitigate man-animal conflict in the area, he said.

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Wayanad sanctuary plays host to Chousingha

E.M. Manoj KALPETTA
The Hindu  July 11, 2018  

Apart from providing refuge to various species of vultures and other wildlife, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary has also proved to be a safe haven for the four-horned antelope or Chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis).
The images of the antelope (Ula man in local parlance) were captured by camera traps installed in the Ottipara section of the forest under the sanctuary recently.
This is the first time the animal was photographed in the forest area of the State, though its sighting was reported in the sanctuary a few years ago, N.T. Sajan, warden, told The Hindu.
“We have been closely monitoring the Varalam and Kavanahalla forest areas in the Sulthan Bathery forest range of the sanctuary, adjoining the Rampur reserved forest in Karnataka, for confirming the presence of the animal for the past 10 months,” Mr. Sajan said adding that they had set up 15 camera traps in these areas for the purpose. The photographs of a female and a male sub-adult were captured.
“When the male antelope attains maturity it will have four horns and this speciality distinguished the animal from other bovines,” O. Vishnu, conservation biologist of the sanctuary, said. The animal is included in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act and also in the vulnerable category of the IUCN .
“The antelope is diurnal (active mainly during the day) and usually found in dry deciduous forests. Though solitary in nature, it may form loose groups of three to five, with one or more adults, sometimes accompanied by juveniles,” Mr. Vishnu said.
The four-horned antelope was threatened by the loss of its natural habitat, he said. Moreover, the unusual four-horned skull and the horns had been a popular target for trophy hunters, he added. There are nearly 10,000 of them in the country according to the latest census.
“We are planning a comprehensive project for conservation of the species,” Mr. Sajan said.

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Bid to fix radio collars on jumbos

• E.M. MANOJ KALPETTA, 
• The Hindu, February 20, 2016
• 
  The Forest and Wildlife Department has launched an operation to attach radio collar on rogue elephants in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) to keep them off human settlements.
  “We are planning to attach radio collar telemeter on rouge elephants after tranquillising them, for which the department had identified two jumbos, a tusker and a makhana (male elephant without tusks), in Sulthan Bathery and Tholpetty ranges,” P. Dhaneshkumar, warden in charge of WWS, toldThe Hindu .
  “Radio collaring will help constant monitoring of the marauding elephants and local people could be warned about their entry into farms and habitats. The radio signals sent by the device would also be used for studying the movement pattern and behaviour of elephants in general,” he said.
  The World Wildlife Fund has supplied three radio collars, each costing around Rs.3 lakh, free of cost to the department after importing them from South Africa.
  A team of wildlife experts, including C.S. Jayakumar, Forest Veterinary Surgeon; Arun Zachariah, Assistant Professor, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, and Jijimon, Assistant Forest Veterinary Officer, had tracked a wild tusker on Friday in the Ponkuzhy section of the WWS to fix the radio collar telemeter on it. But their attempt failed as the jumbo hid among bushes along with its herd. Though the team had applied two tranquilliser darts on it, it was deflected, Mr. Dhaneshkumar said adding that the operation would continue on Saturday.
  Earlier, in 2011, a wild elephant had been successfully fixed with a radio collar telemeter in the sanctuary.
• 
  

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No move to declare Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary a tiger reserve: officials

E. M. Manoj
KALPETTA,  
The Hindu, August 29, 2014 

Senior forest officials have denied a report on the alleged move of the State government to submit a proposal to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to declare the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) a tiger reserve.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden G. Harikumar told The Hindu on Thursday that the news was ‘fabricated and misleading.’

The Forest Department was yet to submit such a proposal to the NTCA or the Ministry of Forest, Environment, and Climate Change, he said.

Some leading news channels reported that the Union Ministry had taken measures to declare the WWS a tiger reserve and it created apprehension among villagers, especially those living on the forest fringes.

It was also reported that Union Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar had responded positively to the proposal.

Benefits of plan

However, N. Badusha, president of Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samiti, said this was the time to sensitise the public to the significance of setting up a tiger reserve, and its benefits.

Some vested interest groups had already misled the public that if a reserve was set up, a lot of restrictions would be enforced on them, he said.

Same norms

The Wildlife Protection Act applied equally to a sanctuary and tiger reserve. So, no new norms would be imposed.

On the other hand, setting up of a tiger reserve would be beneficial to the villagers as a huge fund would be allotted to the reserve for the conservation of tigers.

It would also help expedite the ongoing voluntary relocation project for settlers inside the sanctuary, he added. Moreover, projects would be initiated to tackle the escalating man-animal conflict, he said.

A camera-trap programme undertaken by the Forest Department in 2012 concluded that the sanctuary harboured at least 67 adult tigers and 11 cubs, an impressive number for a sanctuary spread over just 344.44 km.

 

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Survey shines light on the weeny wildlife

E. M. Manoj
KALPETTA,  
The Hindu, June 2, 2014

A three-day odonate (order of insects comprising dragonflies and damselflies) survey at the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) has revealed that the area populates a large number of micro fauna too.

The three-day survey, organised jointly by the Malabar Natural History Society (MNHS) and the Forest Department, came to an end on Sunday.

This was the first such a survey in the sanctuary and 67 species of odonates, including 38 dragonfly species and 29 damselflies, were recorded in it. Fourteen among them were identified as endemic to the Western Ghats and endangered. “Among the 12 dragonflies on the list are Malabar torrent dart, Black torrent dart, Long-legged club tail, Kodagu club tail, Giant club tail, Pigmy club tail and Blue hack. The two damselflies are Wayanad Bamboo tail and Pale spotted bamboo tail,” said Jaffer Palot, scientist, Zoological Survey of India, who coordinated the survey.

Around 50 odonate enthusiasts from across the State took part in the survey. They were divided into eight teams for the purpose. Two teams each along with supporting forest staff were deployed at eight areas of the four forest ranges in the WWS. “Thrust areas were near waterholes, streams, and rivulets in the sanctuary where odonates are abundantly found,” Ajith K. Raman, assistant wildlife warden said.

Though the macro fauna in the sanctuary was well documented, a thorough study on its micro fauna was yet to be take up, Mr. Ajith said, adding that the survey was the first step in the direction.

“Odonate taxa are ideal models to assess the impact of environmental warming and climate change due to their tropical evolutionary history and adaptation to temperate climates,” he said.

About 5,000 species of odonates are found throughout the world. In India about 500 species and subspecies are reported and of this, about 153 species are found in the State. A BioBlitz, in which participants are asked to record all the living species of a particular region within a specified time, was also organised in connection with the programme. Narendranath Veluri, Additional Deputy Conservator, WWS, gave away prizes to the winners. C.G. Kiran, an odonate expert and A.K. Gopalan, assistant wildlife warden, WWS, assisted in the survey.

 

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