Current Affairs

Issue

Forest officials have been trying to capture a Tiger that had attacked humans near Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

 

Background

Man-animal conflicts have rise over the years due to various reasons. The major concern has been expansion of agriculture and intrusion of human activities into deeper jungles.

 

Details

• The tiger is alleged to be behind the deaths of many people, though this charge has remained unproven.

• The forest officials are planning to neutralise the animal through non-deadly methods using tranquillizer darts.

• Under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the primary steps involve capturing, trapping, tranquillizing, restraining and killing only when all the above methods fail.

 

About

• The reserve is located in the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala.

• It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and was a declared tiger reserve in 2007. It has been notified as 'Critical Tiger Habitat'.

 

Location

• The reserve is situated in the eastern hills of the Western Ghats.

• It is bordered in the north by Bandipur National Park, in the east by Sigur Reserve Forest and in the west by Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.

 

Geography

• The Moyar River and its tributaries drain this protected area.

• This area is part of the South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests with tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.

 

Flora and fauna

• The area supports several endangered and vulnerable species including Bengal tiger, Indian elephant, Gaur and Indian leopard.

• Prominent tree species include flame-of-the-forest, kusum tree, weaver's beam tree, Indian rosewood, Malabar plum, silk-cotton tree and Indian beech.

 

Features

The reserve has corridor linkages to other tiger reserves such as Bandipur, Satyamangalam, Mukurthi, BRT, Silent valley.