The number of big cats at Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) is all set to rise, as forest officials claim to have sighted five tiger cubs in Manguraha range there.
Though the cubs were born in May, camera traps first captured their pictures only in August. The cubs are around 3 months old now.
"Two tigresses gave birth to three cubs each at Manguraha range in May. Tiger trekkers confirmed the news early, basing their find on the behavioural pattern of the tigresses. Pugmarks of cubs were noticed by early July. But the mother tigresses were over-protective. As a result, we were not able to spot the cubs through our camera traps in the initial weeks. Camera traps finally spotted three of them in August. One cub, however, got mauled by a tigress," said Alok Kumar, divisional forest officer (DFO), division-I at VTR.
DFO Alok said all five newborn cubs were healthy and were seen moving around with their mothers.
"Tiger cubs normally open their eyes a week after birth. They feed on breast milk for three to six months. The two mothers are breast-feeding them at present. The cubs would stay with their mothers for 1.5-2 years, after which the male cubs would migrate to distant places. The females, too, would leave their mothers but not stay very far away from them," said Alok.
The reserve management has named the two mother tigresses as T3 and T4 and the father tiger T1. The cub that died was killed by a tigress, which happened to be its sibling, being born to T3 in 2013. "It is normal in the cat family for individuals to treat each other as natural rivals. Once cubs leave their mother 1.5-2 years after their birth, they are unaware of forthcoming cubs from the same mother," said Alok.
Forest officials claimed there has been a steep rise in breeding activities by tigers in Manguraha range. Manguraha, spread over 101.71 sqkm, is the easternmost range of VTR. To its north is Chitwan National Park in Nepal, to its east Parsa Wildlife sanctuary and to its west Gobardhana range. "Around 13 cubs have been born in Manguraha range in the past three years because of favourable habitat management," said Alok.
As per the 2010 tiger census at VTR by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), eight tigers were registered in around 440 sqkm of the core area of the reserve. The number rose to 22 according to the first annual census conducted in 2013. Nitish Kumar, who was chief minister then too, had released the report on February 9, 2014. Later, the number of tigers was revised to 28 as per "Report on All India Tiger Estimation 2014" released by Union minister for environment, forests and climate change Prakash Javadekar on January 20 this year.
