By Jennifer Cruse | Individual Giving Officer
Whilst tigers are often in the spotlight, the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership also protects a whole host of lesser known but equally important species.
The Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership (SLTP), which Born Free is a memberof, has been undertaking various conservation initiatives to protect the forests and wildlife of central India – one of the world’s most important tiger landscapes – for the past 20 years.
Whilst tigers have often been the focus of many of these initiatives,through conserving tiger habitat, the partners of SLTP have also indirectly extended protection to several lesserknown but equally importantspeciesthat live alongside tigers.
Several partners undertakespecific projects for conserving these lesser known species, from vultures and otters, to the most trafficked mammal on the planet: pangolins.
Vultures
Vulture populations are plummeting across the country,due to poisoning, and ingesting pesticides and medications for livestock (such as diclofenac) which can be lethal to vultures. In response,SLTP partnerBombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has beenmanaging Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres (VCBC) across the country in partnership with local governments, where more than 750 birds have been bred successfully in captivity since 2004. Early this year, 20 Critically Endangered vultures were released by BNHS incentral Indian tiger reserves as a part of this collaborative initiative to save thevultures from looming extinction. To ensure the benefits of the project are felt by local communities, BNHS teams are also conducting community engagement and awareness programmes for cattle owners and villagers around the vulture nesting colonies to sensitize them.
Separately,in Panna Tiger Reserve, situated in the northern part of the central Indian landscape, SLTP partner Baavan has been undertaking bird surveys with vultures being one of the focus species. In 2023, 56 Endangered white-rumpedvultures were observed by the team. The aim is to replicate the surveys in the tiger forest outside the protected areas, which will go a long way in understanding the impact of protection and conservation measures on bird communities.
Pangolins
SLTP partner the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) works in central India to monitorpangolins, the most trafficked mammal in the world. As a part of this programme, pangolins rescued fromthe illegal wildlife trade are rehabilitated in Pench and Satpura Tiger Reserve. It is heartening to hear that the pangolins have started to reproduce in these reserves. In addition,WCT trains the forest staff in pangolin ecology to ensure that the pangolins they rescue have a greater chance of surviving.
Otters
Earlier this year, there was more good news from the WCT team, when for the first time, Eurasian otters were recorded in the state of Maharashtra in central India. The discovery results from their joint study conducted withPench Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra) authorities.
As their name suggests, the historic range of the Eurasian otter is vast, extending from Ireland to Japan, and from the artic to northern Africa. Having disappeared from much of their historic range, Eurasian otters now occur in very low densities, andtheirpresencesignals a healthy ecosystem. The team has been collaborating with local forest departments to initiate a long-term study on this species and forest hydrology to develop effective conservation strategies for the species and its habitat.
There is much to celebrate,not just for tigers, but for otters, pangolins, vultures and many other lesser known species throughout the Satpuda Landscape. We are grateful to all our supporters of SLTP – your contributions go a long way in enabling all the partners of the SLTP Network to conserve the forests of central India and all the wonderful species that call these forests their home.
Links:
By Natalie Blachford | Project Leader
By Natalie Blachford | Project Leader
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser