ROING, 4 Mar: For the first time, a tiger was captured in a camera trap during a recent survey and monitoring conducted in the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary.
The survey was conducted by a team led by Mehao RFO Dr Kabuk Lego, along with NERIST PhD scholar Deepankar Barman, with the support of NGO Wildlife Trust of India.
“The presence of tigers has always been reported in sign surveys or by the public, but no tiger images hadever been captured in camera traps till date, despite several intensive studies carried out in past,” Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Mito Rumi said in a release on Tuesday.
“Lower Dibang Valley’s sustenance of high biodiversity in flora fauna, especially large cats, birds, majestic ungulates, must be credited to the conservation community champions – Idu Mishmis and Adis,” the release said, and added that “good habitat quality and prey base in Dibang, Kamlang and Namdapha landscape are pivotal for healthy genetic flow in sink-source web, especially among big carnivores.”
During camera-trap retrieval in the survey exercise conducted in the first week of February, a tiger foot-trap set by poachers was also detected, “in which a member of the survey team, Rama Umpo, sustained injuries to his leg,” the release said.
“Foot-traps used for hunting big animals pose grave danger to tourists, students, villagers and mithun herders also,” the DFO said.
He said that forest officials have been carrying out combing operations in suspected poacher trails to detect foot-traps since the incident of leg injuries.
“Mehao WLS will collaborate with other law enforcement agencies, including central agency WCCB, to fight against tiger poaching syndicate which operates across states and international boundaries,” the release said, and added that cash rewards will also be provided to informers regarding the tiger poaching mafia.
