Tigers Sighted at Sahyadri mountain range

[nlok...@gmail.com]

Great news to share with all. It seems that the famous Indian tigers
have returned or reappeared in the mountain ranges of SAHYADRIS in the
Maharashtra region. This is what I learn from the news report which
appeared today in the Economic times Of India.

The Western Ghats or The Sahyadri mountains are a continuous mountain
range starting from the border of Gujarat-Maharashtra and ends at
Kanyakumari, the south most tip of India. It runs about 1600
kilometers through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
and ends in Tamil Nadu. Most of the Western Ghats are located in
Karnataka. It runs parallel to the Arabian Sea and separates the
plateau from the coastal areas..

Around 60000 square kilo meters are the areas of this mountain range
with a number of rivers originating from them, being the catchment
areas and feeding points of these rivers. It has an average elevation
of1200 meters to the highest at Anamudi in Kerala, which is the
highest peak in South India.

This Western Ghats have a wide variety of trees, plants, mammals,
amphibians and birds and Tigers used to roam about these forests
before in large numbers and now in small numbers. These tigers have
been hunted down by hunters for game and poachers for money. Since the
governments concerned, took action to prevent their further
annihilation some are still living in the wild.

The sighting of the Tigers is in an area of about 800 square
kilometers of mountainous region of the Sahyadri in Maharashtra where
previously it was assumed to have been extinct about 30 years ago.
Former Head of Wild Life Institute of India, Mr. Sowarkar said that
there may be about twenty tigers now in that range which was found out
in a sensus of the animals taken recently.

Probably since nobody has detected their presence for so many years,
they could have survive the poacher's and other heart less people's
guns. Now the Government of Maharashtra should come forward and
declare the area as protected under the wildlife act. Luckily our
Prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh has recently announced the necessity
of protecting the tigers and believe that the Union government will
take a pro active step in the protection of Tigers.