When Aasha gave birth to three cubs in one of the enclosures of Kuno national park - there was good news and bad news. The good news is that this is the second litter of cheetah on Indian soil after Siyaya, another Namibia cheetah, gave birth to four cubs in March 2023 and that the animal seems to have acclimatized further in India conditions. Birth in captivity will also enhance their chances of survival. The three newborns from Aasha have also increased the number of cheetahs in India. The bad news is that like Siyaya's cubs, they too are born within the confines of a boma and would not get the environmental conditions required to survive in the wild. They would also be reared up by Aasha in the enclosure -safe from predators like leopards. But what does this mean? Kuno Awaits Cheetah Birth in Open Forest Cheetahs were translocated to India with a purpose. The Cheetah action plan envisages saving, conserving and developing India's grasslands .The reason for choosing cheet
If tigers are solitary creatures, don't they get lonely and depressed? An interesting question ran by Quora on July 29, 2017. About three years later, a tiger itself seemed to have answered this query.
This tiger lived , alone ,in Kuno Palpur Ntional Park of Madhya Pradesh for 10 years, yes, one decade ! Recently the elderly tiger reached his home Ranthambhore National Park , almost 100 kms away, safely. Code named T38 by the officials of this wonderful tiger reserve of Rajasthan some time in 2006 -07, the big cat was known as “Ranthambhore ka Sher '' in Kuno, the park awaiting the arrival of lions for three decades now. For this reason, Madhya Pradesh has not relocated any tiger in the park to increase their number and for the past 3650 days, T38 was living absolutely unaccompanied . Interestingly , there was no tigress around and T38 spent a bachelor’s life. The predator would hunt and was quite healthy.
A tiger expert of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) said in a lighter vein , “ achcha khasa yahan reh rahaa thaa, ab budhape mein kyu pitne gaya wapis Ranthambhore" ( living comfortably here, why did he go to Ranthambhore to be thrashed ( by young tigers). Experts believe that he was pushed to Kuno 10 years ago because of high density of tigers in Ranthambhore. For ten years he ruled this jungle before ‘renunciation’.
It was confirmed by PK Verma, divisional forest officer of Kuno wildlife division , “ there was no other tiger in the forest. Presence of the female was never recorded ” .Tigers do not live in groups like lions do. Mostly , they live solitary lives except when females are raising cubs. Although rarely seen, the term for a group of tigers is a "streak”. But living ten years absolutely alone and the "homing instinct" baffled even the tiger experts.
In fact, the capture of T38 in a trap camera after so many years came as a surprise to the field staff of Ranthambhore. The tiger movement was captured in a camera trap installed near Bhadlav and Chiroli regions of Kundera range on October 19 and 24. Later on November 15, the movement of the big cat was again recorded in the area of Talada range.
To cross check , Ranthambhore officials matched the latest pictures of T38 with the images of Kuno-Palpur trap camera’s and the return journey of T38 was finally established.
The Jungle Corridor Fragementing Day by Day
Tiger corridors are fragmented in India
Ranthambhore ka tiger was born to tigress T-13, a sibling of
T-39, better known as Noor, one of the most famous tigresses of Ranthambore.
She is very famous among the wildlife photographers. At present, T-13 is the
oldest surviving tigress in Ranthambore, park officials said.
An official said, “There is a possibility that more young tigers might have reached Kuno and pushed the old tiger from the jungle . They said after T38 returned , they have also written a letter to Madhya Pradesh forest department to closely monitor the presence of big cats and coordinate with Rajasthan about movement of the tigers. In the past, after T38 reached Kuno, atleast two more tigers migrated from Ranthambhore but they never stayed in the jungle. Movement of T71 was recorded but it later vanished. Similarly, T56 lived in the sanctuary before moving further to Datia, about 175 kms , and then disappeared.
Also read : Protect This Wildlife Corridor to Save Ganges
T38 returned to Ranthanbhore through a fragmented corridor ,deteriorating each passing day , connecting the two jungles. Though there are three rivers, villages and agriculture fields in between; Ranthambhore -ka -sher succeeded in his return journey. Between Ranthambhore and Kuno, river Chambal forms the boundary between MP and Rajathnan .It is not easy for a tiger to move between the two jungles from Rajasthan to Madhya Pradesh. An old guard in Ranthambhore explains the route that might have been taken by T38 while dispersing to Kuno a decade ago. “T38 walked southeast to cross Banas river and continued to move in a ravine patch of forest, before crossing the Chambal at its confluence with Param and then followed the river upstream to reach Kuno . Of course, it had to cross over Kuno river and the agriculture fields before finally reaching the park.” The river kuno and Param pass through Kuno park while Doni and Seep flows in the larger Kuno landscape.
Ten years later when he started his return journey, the situation was even worse. A major project of flattening of ravines in Rajasthan has further fragmented the corridor destroying the ravine ecology, officials said.
This fragmentation has also denied the famous national park of the desert state of fresh -gene pool from Madhya Pradesh. “ But nobody is bothered about the corridor”, they rued.
Kuno awaits for Asiatic Lions
Now that the lone tiger has also left Kuno, the jungle is
left without a big cat. Till now there is no fresh evidence of some new tiger .
The lions also continue to elude Kuno. It has been 30 years since Kuno Palpur was first identified
as the site for the relocation of Asiatic lions, from their last habitat in
Gujarat, to protect them from extinction. Currently, there are 674 lions in the
Gir landscape and this relocation project was supposed to have been finished by
2020. In the present circumstances ,
relocation of the mighty predator doesn’t seem to be happening. Now the
ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate change WII has started toying with the idea of introducing cheetahs in Kuno.
Also read: Problem of Plenty: Gir Lions Turn Scavengers AsDeadly Virus Stares
Recently, when a feasibility survey for the translocation of this fastest animal on four legs is being done, WII experts also included Kuno for the project survey. Though Rs 100 crores were spent while preparing the jungle to accord welcome to lions, cheetahs can also be brought in cases conforms to the criteria for cheetah relocation.
“ If a cheetah is brought, it doesn’t mean that Kuno can't host lions. They do coexist in African jungles and they did coexist here in India before it was declared extinct in 1952”, officials said.
Very informative
ReplyDelete