Status of Tiger in Rajasthan

The Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve is the westernmost limit of the Bengal Tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, concentrated in the 300 km2 core area of the reserve; however, the source population is facing tremendous pressure from the adjoining human settlements. In addition, the dispersal of transient tigers from the source population to other degraded and less protected areas is a serious threat to its conservation. These areas are, in fact, sinks to the source population as the scarcity of prey base leads to lifting of livestock from the surrounding areas resulting in man-animal conflict. Thus a stage is set for further confrontation often leading to retaliatory poisoning or killing of these transients. Though officially banned, poaching of tiger for skin and other body parts for onward trade to countries like China continues to be a serious problem. Apart from monitoring of such transients through telemetry, other serious protection measures in adjoining areas of the reserve should be considered. The possibilities of shifting such transients to other protected areas based on the experiences gained from the recent tiger reintroduction at Sariska Tiger Reserve should be scientifically worked out.