The 189 sq km sanctuary, located near Nagpur, is divided over three ranges of Paoni, Kuhi and Karhandla. The last location of the seven-footer and 250 kg Jai was at Paoni range on April 18, this year.
After the disappearance of Maharashtra's iconic tiger 'Jai,' calls are getting louder for declaring his habitat of the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary (UKWLS) as a tiger project, considering its rising population of big cats. This long-pending upgrade will ensure higher degree of protection and linkages with other tiger projects like Tadoba, Bor and Navegaon Nagzira for better tiger movement and genetic dispersal.
"Earlier, UKWLS was used by tigers for transit, but now, it has a population of 19 big cats, which are emerging as a source population," said a source from the forest department, pointing to the need for the sanctuary to be declared as a tiger reserve.
The 189 sq km sanctuary, located near Nagpur, is divided over three ranges of Paoni, Kuhi and Karhandla. The last location of the seven-footer and 250 kg Jai was at Paoni range on April 18, this year.
"This is a very good landscape for protection, as the corridor is also active. After Jai's disappearance, two unidentified male tigers were detected in camera traps. This means they came to establish their territory after Jai moved out. These males have come from other forests and have not been caught in our camera traps earlier," the official said.
He added that Jai's previous GPS trackings revealed that he had moved in an area of around 580 sq km, which was much larger than his territory in UKWLS. The dominant male spent around 50% of his time in Umred Karhandla due to availability of food and water and the remaining time outside.
The formation of a tiger project with a core and buffer comprising of the neighboring area under the territorial forest division, would also ensure better protection due to the deployment of the special tiger protection force (STPF) and availability of funds from the centre.
"If Umred Karhandla was a tiger reserve, then the monitoring of Jai could have happened over an extensive area," the official said, stressing on the need to develop rich habitats for the rising tiger population in Maharashtra.
"Umred Karhandla is situated at the centre of a triangle linking Bor, Navegaon- Nagzira and Tadoba. If the 189 sq km sanctuary is declared as a core, the adjoining area can be declared as a buffer for linking these three areas," he added, stating that the villages in the buffer would benefit due to various livelihood schemes.
"The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had given a nod in 2015," the official said, adding that the state government needed to immediately move to convert UKWLS to a tiger project.
The official pointed out that a similar proposal for the conversion of the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary to a tiger project also needed to be expedited. The forest department is pushing for the 148.63 sq km Tipeshwar sanctuary to be clubbed with the Painganga sanctuary (400.28 sq km) and be declared as a tiger project.
Maharashtra has six tiger reserves. The tiger census, results for which were released in 2014, have said India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. Maharashtra has around 190 such big cats, more than the figure of 169 in 2010.
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