Guwahati: Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) cum Field Director Satyaprakash Singh on Friday, declared that the Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary and Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed nine big cats at the reserve.
He said that the discovery of the new big cats came to light from the camera traps installed at the Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary and Tiger Reserve.
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The Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department recently concluded its extensive camera trap exercise for the fiscal year 2023-24 within the sanctuary, nestled in the picturesque Seijosa area of the East Kameng district, bordering the state of Assam, DFO acknowledged.
“We have a total of 38 anti-poaching camps to monitor poachers and the authority deployed the forest workers to stay vigilant at these camps 24/7,” DFO said analyzing the movements of the big cats.
DFO further stated that, earlier in 2023 the authority found seven tigers in the tiger reserve while the monitoring in 2024 revealed nine tigers in the tiger reserve.
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He said that the authority carried out this Phase IV monitoring in all the ranges of the tiger reserve such as the Seijosa, Tippi, and Rilloh WL ranges.
However, the authority considered the data obtained from the Seijosa and Tippi WL Range for the estimation of the tiger population, DFO stated.
DFO said the authority carried out the intensive camera trapping in the Rilloh range with the participation of WTI as part of their Asiatic Bear Population Survey.
The sampling zone accounted for a 600 sq.km area. Altogether in both blocks, the authority installed 230 camera traps at 150 locations, and chose the grids, with total effort accounting for 6750 trap nights, the DFO elaborated.
DFO asserted that the successful capture of nine distinct tigers, comprising five females, three males, and one cub, showcased a potentially breeding tiger population within the reserve.
Amidst the survey the authority also found the common leopard (both common and melanistic forms), clouded leopard, marbled cat, leopard cat, golden cat, binturong, Asiatic black bear, Chinese Pangolin, and Wild dog.
The survey also documented small carnivore species such as Large Indian civet, Small Indian civet, Yellow-throated marten and prey species such as Sambar, Barking deer, Wild pig, Gaur, Elephant, Capped langur, Assamese macaque, Brush-tailed porcupine, Smooth clawed otter, Red jungle fowl, and Khaleej Pheasant, DFO confirmed.
DFO informed that the camera trapping session of 2023-2024 at Pakke Tiger Reserve also yielded the first photographic evidence of the Small-toothed Ferret Badger from the Rilloh Range.
The comprehensive data gathered from these camera trap surveys underscores the ecological significance of the Pakke Tiger Reserve as a biodiversity hotspot in Arunachal Pradesh, the DFO added.
Notably, the Pakke River flowing alongside the Pakke Tiger Reserve characterized its contain of various species of fish.
The Pakke Tiger and Wildlife Sanctuary was first established as the Pakhui Sanctuary on 1 July 1966 and later declared as the Game Sanctuary on 28 March 1977.
Moreover, the state renamed Pakhui Wildlife Sanctuary in 2001 under the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s Project Tiger.
Significantly, on April 23, 2002, the Pakke Tiger Sanctuary became the 26th tiger sanctuary in the country.