Big cat sighted again in Kuno, MP

After some state governments reported a decline in tiger population last year, there is some good news for tigers, at least in Madhya Pradesh. A year after tigers were reported missing from Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary by the state forest department, the new evidence now shows that tigers are still present there.

A team of students from Environment Biology department of Delhi University with their team leader Faiyaz Khudsar, spotted pugmarks and collected scat of tigers in the sanctuary.

“We believe that there are two tigress and a cub in the sanctuary. Presence of male tiger is not ruled out,” Khudsar told Hindustan Times, adding that the evidence will be forwarded to Directorate of Project Tiger.

The team was there between January 16-21 to participate in the national wildlife census. The new revelation has generated a lot of enthusiasm among conservationalists as 2005's state government census had shown that there are no tigers in the sanctuary.

“It was an extensive survey in which the forest officials failed to find any pugmarks and officially declared that there are no tigers in Kuno,” an official said. But the modern method adopted by the students has once again proved the officials records to be wrong.

Earlier, Rajasthan government had been claiming that there were tigers in Sariska, when, in fact, there was none. Kuno is a repeat but in a different way. “There is something wrong with the census system of state governments which needs to be corrected,” Khudsar said. Kuno is in the ravines of Chambal and has lot of scope for wildlife.