Geo Spatial Approach for Tiger Habitat Suitability Modeling A Case Study of Bandhavgarh National Park Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

India is known as the territory of tigers and it goes without saying that it has world s highest population of tigers. These big cats live proudly in its wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves. India has recorded total of 2461 tigers from 2014 to 2018. On June 29, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the latest tiger census which shown a great rise of tiger population with 2,961 tigers in India on Global Tiger Day. Madhya Pradesh has had poor record for tiger conservation over the last four years. But it still has rise in tiger population with 218. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, India has reported to lost up to 657 tigers from 2012 to 2017 and Madhya Pradesh also tops here as well, i.e. by losing total of 141 tigers. The Bandhavgarh National Park is located in the north eastern border of Madhya Pradesh at the central part of India. It dwells around the Umaria-Shahdol district surrounded by the Satpura mountain range. The latitude and longitude are lies between 230 27 00 to 230 59 50 North latitude and 800 43 15 to 810 15 45 East longitude, falls under the Survey of India Toposheet 64E/1, 64E/2, 64E/3, 64A/13 and 64A/14. The park is elevated at an altitude between 410 m and 810 m. The buffer zone has three administrative zones - Manpur, Dhamokhar, and Panpatha. The reserve falls in the districts Umaria, Katni and Shahdol of Madhya Pradesh. Effective conservation of Tiger and their prey requires a detailed understanding of factors that govern the species spatial distribution and habitat use. Information that describe resource availability (habitat quality and prey abundance), constraints (conflicts with humans) and distribution and abundance of Tigers are important requisites to devise the conservation strategy for the species. The objective of this study is to evaluate Tiger habitat in and around Bandhavgarh National Park using Geospatial technology and related field data. The Results indicates that 80% National Park area is suitable for tiger Habitat.