Hyderabad: Two more tigers have been spotted in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve here, taking the total number of the cat in Telangana to 14. The count was taken during the state Forest department’s Phase 4 monitoring, which was conducted in parts of the reserve’s core area.
In the 2019 census of the Telangana State Forest department, 12 tigers had been identified. The Amrabad Tiger Reserve is home to highest population of Tigers in Telangana. The Phase IV monitoring is being conducted for monitoring the big cats in every Tiger Reserve in India, said a press release from the department on Friday, when the Annual Census Report was formally released by R. Sobha, Prl. Chief Conservator of Forests.
This ongoing Phase 4 monitoring and estimation will give an idea to the Protected Area Managers, about the ‘Prey- Predator’ densities are there in protected areas. Through the monitoring, Forest department officials seek to understand which areas in protected areas are more with prey densities and which are the areas where tiger movements are more. It also helps to understand which areas are disturbed and require intervention etc.
Once in four years, the entire Tiger Reserve, its core and buffer areas included, will be covered with cameras to capture total population, so that more individual tigers can be recorded. This year, through the Water Hole Census, which was conducted at the Amrabad Tiger Reserve, the results showed that early morning hours and evening hours were preferred timings by Ungulates for visiting water holes to drink water.
A total of 43 wild animal species were recorded. Ungulates are primarily large mammals with hooves, which include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, camels, sheep, and deer.