Restoration of foliage at Valmiki Tiger Reserve in the past five years has worked wonders and taken up the number of big cats in the area.

According to the 2010 census conducted at Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR), around 290km northwest of Patna, there were only eight big cats. The latest report released by Union minister of environment and forests Prakash Javadekar in Delhi on Tuesday puts the number at 28.

At the time the reserve was notified in 1989, VTR was home to more than 80 tigers. The dwindling number over the years had set alarm bells ringing among officials at the reserve. Absence of foliage in the grassland was a major hindrance and lot of efforts went into correcting it. That also served to reverse the trend in the tiger numbers because proper grassland management provided a conducive eco-system to the herbivores, the prey base of the felines.

'Absence of grassland was turning out to be a major bottleneck and we worked tirelessly to restore it,' said former Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) director Santosh Tiwari on Wednesday. He headed the reserve during most of the period when the big cats were on their way back to VTR.

Tiwari was director from July 2011 to January 10 this year.

As things stand now, around five per cent of the 800sqkm of the reserve area boasts of grassland, which have become home to herbivores. This, in turn, has attracted the tigers. In 2010, too, five per cent of the reserve area was grassland but foliage necessary to attract the herbivores, and consequently the predators, was missing.

According to estimates by the VTR field officials, the reserve has the potential to have 80 tigers. For that, at least 15 per cent of its area needs to be grassland. That has been incorporated in the tiger conservation plan, too, recently approved by the National Tiger Conservation Authority .

The plan, entailing a 10-year road map for the reserve, would work as the basic document while formulating an annual management plan for the reserve. Apart from grassland restoration, major steps taken by the VTR management to help improve the habitat comprise removing phoenix plants, a kind of weed that do not allow growth of vegetables palatable to the herbivores, checking human interference in the habitat area and involving residents in forest-management activities.

The environment and forests department sanctioned over Rs 1 crore to the VTR on January 9 for habitat management, including removal of the phoenix plants. 'Phoenix plants are spread in small patches over an area of around 150sqkm of the reserve. So far, we have removed them from about 1sqkm. Now, more funds have been provided for the work and its removal would be taken up on war footing,' said a VTR field official.

Principal secretary, environment and forests, Vivek Kumar Singh said: 'We have to make VTR free of this menace. Funds would not be a constraint in habitat management.'

A total of 400 people, including members of Tharu tribe, who live in vicinity of the reserve have been hired for habitat management on an honorarium of Rs 5,000 a month. They are part of 23 patrolling teams and 27 anti-poaching camps. This engagement has brought down their dependence on the forest and its products, including plants and small animals.

'Earlier, we used to venture into the forest area for meeting our basic needs but this job has stopped that,' said Hansraj Patwari, a Tharu youth part of the patrolling team of VTR's Harnatar range.

Appreciating the steps taken by the VTR management, Wildlife Trust of India's regional head Samir Kumar Sinha, said: 'The reserve has seen a remarkable improvement in habitat management and this has reflected in the enhanced number of tigers.'

Sinha has been involved in tiger-related research at the VTR for over a decade now.

Authorities in the environment and forests department have decided to promote eco-tourism on a big scale at the reserve. 'For now, we are going to start operating vehicles inside the reserve for taking visitors on a guided tour,' said Vivek Singh, the environment and forests department principal secretary.