A report by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Maharashtra Forest Department (MFD) calls for enhanced protection of over 37,067 sq km tiger corridors identified in the Vidarbha landscape.
This is the first corridor study based on tiger telemetry data in India. It reveals that the agricultural landscape in Vidarbha is still conducive for tiger movement and is hope for long-term conservation of tigers.
Between 2015-2020, WII and MFD radio-collared 15 tigers under the Long-term research projects in Maharashtra. The report Telemetry-based tiger corridors of Vidarbha landscape, which is ready for release, identified 37,067 sq km of tiger corridors of the total area of 97,321 sq km landscape, which harbours 331 tigers.
The study categorized tiger corridors into 5 classes: very low (10,289 sq km), low (18,728 sq km), medium (5,690 sq km), high (1,418 sq km) to very high (942 sq km).
The report notes the Vidarbha landscape is dissected by 84,202 km of roads, which need pre-emptive mitigation where the roads cross important tiger corridors. Such habitat connectivity is increasingly used to mitigate effects of habitat fragmentation, land-use dynamics, and https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change.