Andhra Pradesh plans new tiger reserve
New tiger reserve in the Seshachalam hills comprising Tirupati and Kadapa forest areas
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-09 02:30 GMT
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh is thinking of notifying a new tiger reserve in the Seshachalam hills comprising Tirupati and Kadapa forest areas. Telangana already has two tiger reserves at Kawal and Amramabad.
Sources in the forest department said that camera traps have to be installed to check the presence of tigers in Seshachalam hills and continuity of vegetation has to be improved to connect Seshachalm with the Nallamalais.
At present the Nagarjunasagar Srisa-ilam Tiger Reserve of AP which covers around 3,700 square km hosts around 75 per cent of the tiger population. Officials have a database of 43 tigers which are identified by stripes after they are photographed by camera traps.
Similarly, in the Amrabad Tiger reserve of Telangana it is estimated that there are 16 to 17 tigers and the database has 11 tigers with stripes. While Guntur, Prakasham and Kurnool falls in the AP tiger reserve, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda is in Telangana. As per fresh estimates it is estimated that there would be 65 to 80 tigers in both AP and TS.