Tezpur: Camera traps installed at the Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary and Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh detected nine big cats at the park. Earlier, the state Forest Department completed the camera trap work for the year 2023-24 at the sanctuary nestled amid lush surroundings at Seijosa in the East Kameng district that borders Assam.
Divisional Forest Officer Satyaprakash Singh told ETV Bharat that the movements of big cats caught on camera are being analysed. "We have a total of 38 anti-poaching camps to monitor poachers and forest workers have been deployed to stay vigilant at these camps 24X7," Singh said.
In 2023, seven tigers were found in the tiger reserve while in 2024, nine tigers were found in the tiger reserve, he said. This Phase IV monitoring was carried out in all the ranges of the tiger reserve such as Seijosa, Tippi and Rilloh WL ranges. The data obtained from Seijosa and Tippi WL Range were only considered for the estimation of the tiger population.
He said intensive camera trapping was carried out in the Rilloh range with the participation of WTI as part of their Asiatic Bear Population Survey. The sampling zone accounted for a 600 sq.km area. Altogether in both the blocks, 230 camera traps were installed at 150 locations , grids were chosen, with total effort accounting for 6750 trap nights.
"The closure period of 45 days was followed during the camera session, nine unique individual tigers, including five female and three male tigers and one cub, were captured," Singh added. In addition to tigers, other co-predators and herbivores such as common leopard (both common and melanistic forms), clouded leopard, marbled cat, leopard cat, golden cat, binturong, Asiatic black bear, Chinese Pangolin, Wild dog, small carnivore species such as Large Indian civet, Small Indian civet, Yellow-throated marten and prey species such as Sambar, Barking deer, Wild pig, Gaur, Elephant, Capped langur, Assamese macaque, Brush-tailed porcupine, Smooth clawed otter, Red jungle fowl and Khaleej Pheasant were found.
Singh informed Small Toothed Ferret Badger being the first photographic evidence from Rilloh Range were also captured during the trapping session of 2023-2024 at Pakke Tiger Reserve.
History of Pakke Tiger Reserve
The Pakke Tiger Reserve is characterised by the Pakke River flowing alongside it which contains various species of fish. The river is known as Bardikarai in the lower reaches of Sonitpur district of Assam. The Pakke Tiger and Wildlife Sanctuary was first established as the Pakhui Sanctuary on 1 July 1966 and later declared as the Game Sanctuary on 28 March in 1977 . It was renamed Pakhui Wildlife Sanctuary in 2001 under the National Tiger Conservation Authority's Project Tiger. On April 23, 2002, the Pakke Tiger Sanctuary became the 26th tiger sanctuary in the country.
