Category: Wildlife Reserve

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve

On By giteshssIn Forest, National park, Uncategorized, Wildlife ReserveLeave a comment

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Overview

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra is The oldest and Largest Wild life National Park in State. It is one amongst India’s 43 Tiger Reserve. It is Maharashtra’s oldest and largest national park. Created in 1955, the reserve includes the Tadoba National Park and the Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary. The reserve consists of 577.96 sqkm (223.15 Sqmi) of reserved forest and 32.51 sqkm (12.55 Sqmi) of protected forest.

The name Tadoba is from the name of the God Tadoba who was also called Taru, he was praised by the tribal people who lived in the dense forests of the Todoba. Legend hold that Taru was a village chief who was killed in a mythological encounter with a Tiger. A shrine dedicated to the God Taru now exists beneath a huge tree, on the banks of the Tadoba lake.

History

Legend hold that Taru was a village chief killed in mythology encounter with a Tiger. Taru was diefied and a shrine dedicated to Taru now exists beneath large tree on the banks of Tadoba Lake. The temple is frequented by adivasis, especially during a fair held annually in the Hindu month of Pausha (Dec-Jan). The Gond King’s once ruled these forests in the vicinity of the Chimur hills. Hunting was banned in 1935. Two decades later, in 1955, 116.54 sqkm (45.00sqmi) of this forest area was declared a national park. Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary was created in the adjacent forests in 1986. In 1995, the park and the sanctuary were merged to establish the present Tiger reserve.

Geography

Tadoba Andhari Reserve is the largest national park in Maharashtra. The total area of the reserve is 625.4 sqkm (241.5sqmi). This include Tadoba National Park, with an area of 116.55sqkm (45sqmi) and Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary with an area 508.85 sqkm (196.47Sqmi). The reserve also includes 32.51 sqkm (12.55sqmi) of protected forest and 14.93sqkm (5.76sqmi) of uncategorised land.

To the south-west is the 120 hectares (300acres) Tadoba lake which acts as buffer between the parks forest and the extensive farmland which extends up to Irai water reservoir. This lake is a perennial water source which offers a good habitat for Muggar Crocodiles to thrive. Other wetland areas within the reserve include Kolsa Lake and the Andhari river.

Tadoba reserve covers the Chimur Hills, and the Andhari sanctuary covers the Moharli and Kolsa ranges. It is bounded on the Northern and Western sides by densely forested hills. Thick forests are relieved by smooth meadows and deep valleys as the terrain slopes from north to south. Cliffs, talus and caves provide refuge for several animal. The two forested rectangles are formed of the Tadoba and Andhari ranges. The south part of the park is less hilly than the remainder.

Tadoba lake
Kolsa lake
Andhari river

Flora

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Tadoba is a predominantly southern tropical dry forest with dense woodlands comprising about 87% of the protected area. The most popular species of the trees are Teak and Bamboo in this forest. Others trees include.

  • Ain(Crocodile bark)
  • Bija
  • Dhauda
  • Hald
  • Salai
  • Semal
  • Tendu
  • Behede
  • Hirda
  • Karaya Gum
  • Mahua Madhuca
  • Lannea coromandelica
  • Bamboo thickets
  • Climber Kach Kujali (Velvet bean)
  • Bheria
  • Bija
  • Beheda

Axlewood is a fire resistant species growing here. Palas or flame of the forest adds vibrant colour of the forest, Black plum trees grow in the riparian habitat around the lake. At the waterhole at Panchadara, huge Arjun tree’s are seen, Green grass is found throughout the reserve.

Black plum
Bamboo plant
Velvet bean
Gum plant

Fauna

Tadoba National Park is a popular Tiger reserve known as “The Land of Tigers” as large number of Tigers are found here, Aside from the keystone species , the Bengal Tiger, Tadoba Tiger reserve is home to other mammals, including

Land Mammals

  • Indian leopards
  • Sloth bears
  • Gaur
  • Nilgai
  • Dhole
  • Striped hyena
  • Small Indian Civit
  • Jungle Cats
  • Sambar
  • Sport deer
  • Chital
  • Chausingha
  • Honey Badger
Sloth Bear
Indian Gaur
Nilgai
Wild Dog (Dhole)
Chausingha

Reptiles include

  • Marsh Crocodile
  • Indian Python
  • Indian monitor
  • Terrapins
  • Indian star tortoise
  • Indian Cobra
  • Russell’s viper
Crocodile
Python
Monitor Lizard
Cobra
Russell’s viper

Birds

The lake is an omithologists paradise with a wide diversity of water birds, and raptors, 195 species of birds are been recorded including three endangered species.

  • Grey headed fish eagle
  • Crested serpent eagle
  • Changeable Hawk eagle
  • Orange headed Trush
  • Indian Pita
  • Stone Creek
  • Crested honey Buzzard
  • Bronze winged Jacana
  • Lesser Goldenbacked Woodpecker
  • Warblers
  • Black naped blue flycatcher
  • Peacock
Grey headed fish eagle
Paradise Fly Catcher
lesser golden backed woodpecker
Warbler
Crested Treeswift
Stone Curlew

Insects

  • Butterflies (Pansies, Monarch, Mormons, Swordtails)
  • Danaid Egg fly
  • Great Egg fly
  • Dragon flies
  • Stick insects
  • Jewel bettles
  • Praying Mantis
  • Spiders (Signature spider, Giant wood spider, Red wood spider, Wolf Spiders, Crab Spider, Lynx Spider)
Monarch butterfly
Daniad eggfly
Jewel bettle
Stick insect
Praying Mantis

There are many amazing creatures like spiders creat their own world in it spiders like.

Giant wood spider (Nephila pilipes) is a species of golden orb-web spider. It resides all over countries in east and South East Asia Like India as well as Oceania. It is commonly found in primary and secondary forests and gardens.

Argiope anasuja is a species of harmless orb-weaver spider found from the Seychelles to India, Pakistan and Srilanka and in Maldives

The redwood spider belongs to the genus Callobius of the Amaurobiidae family of spider, one of nearly 30 species in this family. It also goes by the names hacklemesh weaver, tangled nest spider or night spider.

Climate

Winter stretch from November to February, during the season, daytime temperatures are in the 25-30°C range and the park is lush green. While summers are extremely hot in Tadoba, with the temperature rising to 47°C, it is the ideal time to sight mammals near Lakes as vegetation is minimal. The monsoon season begins in June the area receives heavy rainfall during this season (approx 1274mm) and humidity hovers around 66%.

Threats to Forests

There are 41,644 people living in and around the reserve in fifty nine villages of which five are inside the core zone. These villages in the core zone still farm inside the core area. The process of rehabilitation is going on. Recently the Navegaon village was rehabilated, and grassland is expected on the place where the village existed. There are 41,820 cattle within the core and buffer zone. While cattle grazing is not allowed in the core zone, regulated grazing in the buffer zone is allowed to cattle of the village inhabitants. However cattle in peripheral villages sometimes find their way into the reserve and cause additional damage to the habitat.

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Real King of Jungle The Tiger

The Sundarbans National Park

On By giteshssIn Forest, National park, Wildlife ReserveLeave a comment

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Overview

The Sundarbans National Park is a national park, Tiger reserve and biosphere reserve in West Bengal, India. It is a part of the Sundarbans on the Ganges Delta, and adjacent to the Sundarbans Reserve Forest in Bangladesh. The delta is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal Tigers. It is also home to a variety of bird, reptile and invertebrate species including the saltwater crocodile. The present Sundarban National Park was declared as the core area of Sundarban Tiger Reserve in 1973 and a wildlife sanctuary in 1977. On 4 May 1984 it was declared as National Park. It has been designated as a Ramsar site since 2019. It is considered as a World Network of Biosphere Reserve (Man and Biosphere Reserve) from 1989.

Administration

Map of the protected Areas of the Indian Sundarban, showing the boundaries of the tiger reserve, the national park and the three wildlife sanctuaries, conservation and lodging centres, subsistence towns and access points. The entire forested (dark green) area constitutes the biosphere reserve, with the remaining forests outside the national park and wildlife sanctuaries being given the status of a primary reserve forest.

The park receives financial aid from the state government as well as the Ministry of Environment and Forests under various plan and non-plan budgets. Additional funding is received under the Project Tiger from the Central Government. In 2001, a grant of US$20,000 was received as preparatory assistant for promotion between India and Bangladesh from the World Heritage Fund.

Geographic elements

The Sundarbans National Park is located between 21°432′-21°55’N latitude and between 88°42′-89°04’E longitude. The average altitude of the park is 7.5m above sea level. The park is composed of 54 small islands and intersected by several distributaries of the Ganges River.

Climate

The average minimum and maximum temperature is 20°C and 48°C respectively. Rainfall is heavy with humidity as high as 80% as it is close to the Bay of Bengal. The monsoon lasts from mid-June to mid-Sep. Prevailing wind is from the north and north-east from October to mid March and south-west westerlies prevails from mid March to September, storms which sometimes develop into cyclones are common during the months of May to October.

Eco-geography, rivers and watercourses

Seven main rivers and innumerable water courses form a network of channels at this estuarine delta. All the rivers have a southward course towards the sea. The eco-geography of this area is totally dependent on the tidal effect of two tides and two ebb tides occuring within 24hrs with a tidal range of 3-5m and up to 8m in normal spring tide, inundating the whole of Sundarban in varying depths. The tidal action deposits silts back on the channels and raising the bed, it forms new islands and creeks contributing to uncertain geomorphology. There is a great natural depression called “Swatch of no ground” in the Bay of Bengal between 21°00 to 21°22′ latitude where the depth of water changes suddenly from 20m to 500m. This mysterious depression pushes back the silts towards south and/or further east to form new islands.

List of 5 important rivers

Ganges(Ganga):- The Ganges or Ganga is a transboundary river of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh. The 2,705km river originates from Gangotri Glacier of western Himalayas in Indian State of Uttarakhand and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of India and Bangladesh, eventually emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

Hooghly:- The Hooghly river or the Bhagirathi-Hooghly originally and in local tongues the Ganga and also called Kati Ganga, is an approximately 260km long (160mi) distributary of Ganga River in West bangal, India.

Padma:- The Padma river is a major river in India and Bangladesh, it is the main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally south-east for 120km (75mi) to its confluence with the Meghna River near the Bay of Bengal, the city of Rajshahi is situated on the banks of river.

Brahmaputra:- The Brahmaputra river is a transboundary river which flows through Tibet, India and Bangladesh, it is the ninth largest river in the world river by discharge and the 15th longest.

Meghna:- The Meghna River is one of the major and holiest rivers in Bangladesh, one of the three that form the Ganges Delta, the largest delta on earth, which fans out Bay of Bangal.

Mudflats

The Sundarban Mudflats are found at estuary and on the deltaic islands where low velocity of river and tidal current occurs. The flats are exposed in low tides and submerged in high tides, thus being changed morphologically even in one tidal cycle. The interior parts of the mudflats are the right environment for mangroves, there are a number of mudflats outside the Sunderland National Park is a mudflats that have the potential to be tourist spots in the Sundarbans. One can visit them and enjoy the beauty of the place during low tide. If one is lucky, one can see sea anemones, Horsehoe crab(Nearing extinction) and small octopus

Horsehoe crab
Octopus

Flora and Fauna

The natural environment and coastal ecosystem of this Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site is under threat of physical disaster due to unscientific and excessive human interferences. The coastal active delta of Sundarban at the mouth of Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, having a complex geomorphologic and hydrological character with Climatic hazards, has a vast area of mangrove forests with a variety of flora and Fauna in the ecosystem.

Mangrove forest

Mangroves forest are the group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone. There are 80 different species of mangrove trees. All of these trees grow in area of low oxygen soil, where slow moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate.

Flora
Sundarban has achieved its name from the Sundari Tree. It is most exquisite variety of tree that are found in this area, a special kind of mangrove tree. It has specialised roots called pneumatophores which emerge above ground and help in gaseous exchange i.e respiration. During the rainy season when the entire forest is waterlogged, the spikes rising from the ground has their peak in the air and helps in the respiration process.

Fauna
The Sundarbans forest is home to more than 400 Tigers. The Royal Bengal Tigers have developed a unique characteristics of swimming in the saline waters, and are famous for their eating tendencies. Tigers can be seen on the river banks sunbathing between November and February. More neighbourings like Fishing cats, Leopard cats, macaques, wild boar, Indian grey mangoose, fox, Jungle cat, Flying fox, chital are found in abundance in the Sundarbans.

Below are the list of Wildlife who survives in Sundarbans forest

Land animals

The Royal Bengal Tiger
Fishing Cat
Leopard Cat
Jungle Cat

Avifauna

  • Openbill storks
  • Black capped kingfisher
  • Black headed ibis
  • Water hens
  • Coots
  • Pheasant tailed Jacanas
  • Parish kites
  • Brahminy kite
  • Marsh Harrier’s
  • Swamp partridges
  • Red. Jungle fowl
  • Spotted doves
  • Common mynahs
  • Jungle crows
  • Jungle babblers
  • Cotton teals
  • Herring gulls. And many more
Openbill storks
Black capped kingfisher
Black headed ibis
Water hen
Pheasant tailed Jacanas
Spotted dove

Aquatic Animals

  • Sawfish
  • Butter fish
  • Electric fish
  • Electric rays
  • Silver Carp
  • Star fish
  • Common Carp
  • Horsehoe crab
  • Prawn
  • Shrimps
  • Gangetic dolphins
  • Skipping frogs
  • Common toads
  • Tree frogs
Tree frog
Common toad
Gangetic dolphin
Silver Carp
Electric ray
Saw fish

Reptiles

  • Estuarine Crocodile
  • Chameleon
  • Turtles
  • Hawksbill
  • Green turtle
  • Dog faced water snake
  • Russell’s viper
  • King cobra
  • Monitor Lizard
  • Red tailed bamboo pit viper
  • Common krait
King cobra
Crocodile
Green turtle
Olive Ridley
Red tailed bamboo pit viper
Common Krait

Endangered species

  • Royal Bengal Tiger
  • Saltwater crocodile
  • River terrapin
  • Olive Ridley turtle
  • Ganges River dolphin
  • Hawksbill turtle
  • Mangrove Horsehoe crab

Marine Mammals

  • Bryde’s Whales
  • Irrawaddy Dolphins
  • Ganges River dolphins
  • Chinese white dolphins
  • Finless porpoises
  • Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins
  • Spinner dolphins
  • Pantropical spotted dolphins
  • False killer whales
  • Rough toothed dolphins
Bryde’s Whale
Pantropical spotted dolphins
irrawaddy dolphin
Ganges River dolphin
Chinese white dolphin

Area Information

You can travel the park by boat, down the various lames formed by the many flowing rivers. Local boat’s or vessels operated by the West Bengal tourism development corporation, namely M V Chitrarekha and M V Sarbajaya. Accommodation land and cruise safaris are provided by Sundarbans Tiger Camp, the only government approved resort in the region. They conduct fixed viewing the wildlife from boat safaris, visitors also visit the Sajnekhali Bird Sanctuary, Bhagabatpur Crocodile Project (a crocodile breeding farm) Sagar Island, Jambudweep. Halifax Island and Kamal.

Cruise Safari
Jeep Safari
Boat Safari

Challenge’s found

Tiger Reserve has several has several challenges to its future operations. Due to wandering Tigers, human Tiger conflict continues to be an issue. Sundarbans Tigers hunt humans, and it is estimated that over a thousand of the local people have been killed by Tigers over the post four decades. An estimation of the number of Tigers present in the reserve using the refined method has not yet been completed. A Tiger conservation plan is awaited as are constitution for the State level Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister and the reserve specific Tiger Conservation Foundation.

Economic

KiA 2015 economic assessment study of the Sundarbans estimated that the National park provides flow benefits worth INR 12.8 billion (approximately INR 50000 per hacter of land) annually. Important ecosystem services and their annual valuations include

  • Nursery function (INR 5.17 billion)
  • Gene pool protection (INR 2.87 billion)
  • Provisioning of fish (INR 1.6 billion)
  • Waste assimilation services (INR 1.5 billion)
  • Generation of Employment (INR 36 million)
  • Moderation of cyclonic storms (INR 275 million)
  • Provision of habitat and refugia for wild life (INR 360 million)
  • Sequestration of Carbon (INR 462 million)
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