An Ecological Study in the Buffer Zone of the Corbett Tiger Reserve: Tiger Abundance and Cattle Depredation

Abstract

We studied the problem of livestock depredation by tigers in and around buffer zone of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.Data were collected on all cases of livestock kills by large carnivores in and around buffer zone from October 2002to September 2003. Secondary data on livestock kills and abundance of tigers were collected from the forestDepartment. Data were analyzed by standard statistical procedures and using GIS software Arc GIS (8.3). Blockwise calculation of tiger abundance based on censuses conducted in 1999, 2001 and 2003 showed that the blocksin south and south east zone of buffer zone had highest concentration of tigers accounting for 36.5%, 43.5% and44.7% of tiger population. The tiger abundance was positively correlated with ungulate densities. A total of 311cases of livestock kills and injuries were recorded. A total of 61% livestock kills and 18.6% injuries were by tigersalone in and around buffer zone. The magnitude of livestock kills and injuries showed close resemblance with pastpattern documented in 2001 and 2002. While 30.5% of livestock kills were recorded inside the buffer zoneboundary, 69.5% livestock kills were recorded from outside the buffer zone. Most of the livestock kills weredocumented on south and southeast portion of buffers zone where maximum concentration of tigers was recordedin last three censuses. The number of livestock kills showed substantial increase in rainy season as compared towinter and summer. Tigers killed significantly higher number of cows than buffalo in buffer zone. The distributionof livestock kills showed significant differences in terms of sex of prey species, weight categories, vegetation types,topography, tree and shrub cover, distance to water and human settlements. The analysis of 38 tiger scats collectedfrom inside the buffer zone showed that chital and sambar contributed 47.9% and 14.6%, respectively to the tigerdiet in buffer zone. The observed dietary pattern based on scat analysis showed a very low contribution of livestockspecies to the tiger diet which is in contrast with the high level of livestock depredation by the tigers in and aroundbuffer zone of CTR.