Bhubaneswar: With Similipal Tiger Reserve‘s almost one-third area (the deep core) receiving national park status, wildlife authorities now have ample liberty to carry out tiger conservation management with more funding from the Centre. The tag has come at a time when Similipal has gone for tiger introduction from the Central India landscape, with two female tigers being released in its core. While Yamuna is exploring the territory, Zeenat is lodged in a big enclosure for its behavioural study as it had dispersed.
The reserve, home to 18 melanistic tigers out of a total of 40, including cubs, can be stricter in enforcement measures following the tag. Small teething problems and minor hindrances will not be there to haunt the authorities. “With national park notification, all rights of people within the demarcated area of 845.7 sq km are withdrawn. The stricter the measures, the more solid and serene the inviolate space becomes,” said chief wildlife warden Prem Kumar Jha.
Wildlife officials said the national park area constitutes most parts of the south division of Similipal, which is considered the core of the core area, with some portion of the north division included. “A village called Bakua that is still inside the reserve has been excluded from the national park earmarked area,” Jha added. Officials said the national park status will also help boost tourism around the buffer area of the reserve.
Similipal authorities also hope that they can put in place stricter measures regarding illegal trespassing and the entry of local people, who enter on different pretexts, and reining in poachers. The national park area will be out of bounds for all other than the authorised ones. Earlier, it came to the fore that the eastern side of the Similipal reserve, where a juvenile melanistic tiger was killed, was a fringe area. This exposed the fact that if tigers from the core area disperse to the buffer, they are vulnerable to poachers.
“With enforcement activities and effective habitat management, the tiger population has steadily increased. We hope if this trend continues, more so after the national park tag, the tiger population in the reserve can go up to 100 in the next 10 years. Similipal, considering its total area of 2,750 sq km, can sustain tigers between 90 and 100,” Jha added. Sources said local tribals usually trespass for NTFP, knowing well that the forest department will not oppose them because forest-dependent communities have been living on NTFP sales for a long time.