Now, a tiger spotted at Tilari Conservation Reserve

File pic

The declaration of conservation reserves by the Forest Department seems to be helping the wildlife as, once again, a tiger has been spotted at Tilari Conservation Reserve in Konkan.

Talking to mid-day, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) of Kolhapur V Clement Ben said, "Full-fledged management is not implemented in Tillari Conservation Reserve as of now as the process of drafting the management plan is on. Once it's ratified by the state-level steering committee, full-time monitoring shall start. Currently around 10 infrared camera traps are positioned to monitor the mammals there."

On November 26, a tiger killed cattle at Tillari Conservation Reserve. Earlier this year, a female elephant and her two calves were spotted at the reserve in Sindhudurg. There have also been documented reports of king cobra from the area.

In November 2014 , a rapid assessment of biodiversity in 25 villages of Sawantwadi-Dodamarg region was done by researcher Varad Girl, Raman Kulkarni, Girish Arjun Punjabi, Farukh Mehtar, Dhanajay Joshi, Rohan Korgaonkar , Akshay Khandekar and Ninad Gosavi and a report about the same was submitted to the Forest Department. The survey recorded at least 19 species of mammals, 12 species of amphibians, 71 species of birds, 60 species of butterflies, 2 species of damselflies, 16 species of reptiles, 4 species of scorpions, 4 species of spiders and 5 species of other invertebrates over six days.

The state government had, in June 2020, declared the establishment of Tillari Conservation Reserve, spread across 29.53 sq km, in the reserve forest of the forest range of Dodamarg, Sawantwadi.