Pench Tiger Reserve

The Pench Tiger Reserve (77° 55' E to 79° 35' E and 21° 08' S to 22°00' N) is located in the Seoni and Chhindwara districts, southern Madhya Pradesh, central India.

Pench Coordinates

Coordinate 21° 46′ 38.7″ N, 79° 15′ 25.5″ E
Decimal 21.777°, 79.257°
UTM 2409136 320000 44Q

Map

[http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=21.768428,79.358368&spn=0.511416,0.925598&t=h&z=10&om=1 Google Maps]
[http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#mvt=s&tp=undefined&tt=pench&trf=0&lon=79.269447&lat=21.809552&mag=7 Yahoo Map]

Introduction

The Reserve gets its name from the Pench River that flows through it, North to South, covering a distance of about 74 km through the Reserve. The Reserve lies in the southern lower reaches of the Satpura Hill Range on the southern border of Madhya Pradesh. The total area of the Reserve is 757.89 km² of which, the Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park, forming the core zone of the Reserve, covers 292.85 km², and the Mowgli Pench Wildlife Sanctuary is 118.30 km² in area. A Buffer Zone constituted by Reserved Forests, Protected Forests and Revenue land, occupies 346.73 km². The habitat is contiguous on the south with the 257.26 km² of the Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, both of which have been included in the Tiger Conservation Unit – 31 (Kanha-Pench TCU) (Wikramanayake et al. 1998). The adjoining forests to the west and north-west of the Tiger Reserve come under the East Chhindwara and South Chhindwara Territorial Forest Divisions respectively. The Forest tract to the north and north east of the Reserve comes under the South Seoni Territorial Forest Division.

General Information

This area was described as extremely rich and diverse in wildlife from the earliest records available on the 16th century Deogarh kingdom (Kumar 1989). The scenic beauty and the floral and faunal diversity of the Central Indian Highlands have been well documented by the British since the late 17th century e.g. Forsyth's (1919) "Highlands of Central India" (first published in 1871). Thereafter, Sterndale (1887) and Brander (1923) have added to the knowledge on the distribution of the flora, fauna and the local inhabitants of this tract. The popular fictional works of Rudyard Kipling "The Jungle Book" and "The Second Jungle Book" also have their stories set around this region.

During the 17th Century the Gond rulers of this region cleared large tracts of forests for cultivation and dwellings. This onslaught continued up to 1818, through the rule by the Marathas and later under the British. It was not until 1862 that efforts were made to control the indiscriminate destruction and the forests were declared reserved (elaborated in Kumar 1989).

The Pench Sanctuary was notified in September 1977, with an initial area of 449.39 km². The Pench National Park, recently renamed as Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park, was created in 1983, carved out of the Sanctuary. The Tiger Reserve, 19th in the series, was formed under the Project Tiger scheme in November 1992. The Pench River bisects the Pench Tiger Reserve into two nearly equal parts, the 147.61 km² of the Western Block which falls in the Gumtara Range of the Chhindwara Forest Division and the 145.24 km² of the Eastern Block in the Karmajhiri Range of the Seoni Forest Division (Map 1). Administratively, the Tiger Reserve is divided into three Forest Ranges (Karmajhiri, Gumtara, and Kurai), nine Forest Circles (Alikatta, Dudhgaon, Gumtara, Kamreet, Karmajhiri, Kurai, Murer, Rukhad, and Pulpuldoh), 42 Forest Beats, and 162 Forest Compartments. The National Highway NH 7 that runs between Nagpur and Jabalpur forms the eastern boundary of the Tiger Reserve for an extent of around 10 km.

Physical Features

The general topography of Pench Tiger Reserve is mostly undulating, characterised by small ridges and hills having steep slopes, with a number of seasonal streams and nullahs carving the terrain into many folds and furrows, a result of the folding and upheavals of the past. The topography becomes flatter close to the Pench River. Most of the Tiger Reserve area falls under flat to gentle slope category (0-22 °) (Sankar et al. 2000b). The mean altitude is around 550 m above M.S.L. The geology of the area is mainly comprised of gneisses and basalt (see Shukla 1990 for details).

Climate

The Central Indian Highlands have a tropical monsoonal continental climate, with a distinct monsoon (July to September), winter (November to February) and summer (April to June).

The mean annual rainfall is around 1400 mm, with the south-west monsoon accounting for most of the rainfall in the region. For the dry season (November to May), the mean rainfall was 59.5 mm, and the temperature varies from a minimum of 0° C in winter to 45° C in summer (Sankar et al. 2000).

Hydrology

On the extreme southern boundary of the Tiger Reserve, a dam (Pench Hydroelectric Project) has been constructed on the Pench River. This dam forms the State boundary between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Because of this dam’s reservoir, a sizeable proportion (54 km²) of the Tiger Reserve on the Madhya Pradesh side has come under submergence of the resulting water body (reservoir) after the monsoonal rains. As summer approaches, these areas, from where the water gradually recedes downstream, become lush green meadows attracting high numbers of wild herbivores. During summer, the Pench River dries out leaving small pools of water locally known as "doh" or "khassa", which, besides the Pench reservoir, are the most important sources of water for the animals during this period. Artificial sources of water such as earthen tanks and check-dams (anicuts) too tend to dry out before the month of March, due to the inherent low water retention capacity of the soil. The Reserve management has also set up many hand-pumps and artificial water holes throughout the Reserve to serve as minor sources of water during the pinch summer months.

Vegetation

Pench Tiger Reserve belongs to the Indo-Malayan phyto-geographical region. Ecologically, Wikramanayake et al. (1998) categorized Pench as a tropical moist deciduous (TMD) tiger habitat. Floristically, the Tiger Reserve can be classified, according to Champion and Seth (1968), as:I. TROPICAL MOIST DECIDUOUS FORESTS: i. TYPE 3B/C1c Slightly moist teak forestsII. TROPICAL DRY DECIDUOUS FORESTS: i. TYPE 5A/C1b Dry teak forests ii. TYPE 5A/C3 Southern dry mixed deciduous forests Teak is a ubiquitous species in the region, with a presence ranging from a sporadic distribution in most parts of the study area to localized teak-dominated patches. Teak (Tectona grandis), and associated species such as Madhuca indica, Diospyros melanoxylon, Terminalia tomentosa, Buchanania lanzan, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Ougeinia dalbergoides, Miliusa velutina and Lannea coromandalica, occur on flat terrain. The undulating terrain and hill slopes have patches of Mixed Forest dominated by Boswellia serrata and Anogeissus latifolia. Species like Sterculia urens and Gardenia latifolia are found scattered on rocky slopes. Bamboo forests occur in the hill slopes and along streams. Some of the open patches of the Park are covered with tall grasses interspersed with Butea monosperma and Zizyphus mauritiana. Evergreen tree species like Terminalia arjuna, Syzygium cumini and Ixora parviflora are found in riparian vegetation along nullahs and river banks. Cleistanthus collinus dominant patches are also found in some parts of the Tiger Reserve. The tracts that previously formed pastures of villages (subsequently relocated outside the National Park limits) now constitute open grassy meadows much favoured by the gregarious herbivores. With the approach of summer, the extent of open areas of the Reserve gradually increases with the recession of reservoir’s waters.

Fauna

Zoogeographically, the Reserve falls in Oriental region. The carnivore fauna is represented by the tiger (Panthera tigris Linnaeus), leopard (Panthera pardus Linnaeus), dhole (Cuon alpinus Pallas), jungle cat (Felis chaus Gueldenstaedt), and small Indian civet (Viverricula indica Rasse). Wolf (Canis lupus) occurs on the fringes and outside the Reserve limits. Striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), sloth bear (Melursus ursinus Shaw), jackal (Canis aureus), and common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) make up the rest of the carnivore fauna of the Reserve.

Chital (Axis axis Erxleben), sambar (Cervus unicolor Kerr), gaur (Bos frontalis Lambert), nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus Pallas), wild pig (Sus scrofa L.), barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac Zimmerman) and chowsingha (Tetraceros quadricornis Blainville), are the wild ungulate species found in the study area. Chital, sambar, nilgai and wild pigs are found all over the Tiger Reserve. With the distribution of water governing their movement patterns to a great extent, gaur migrate down from the hills during the dry season and occupy the forests along the Pench River and other sources of water, and migrate back to the hill forests during the monsoon. Nilgai are found mostly in a few open areas, along forest roads, scrub jungles and fringe areas of the Reserve. Chowsingha are more localized to the greatly undulating areas of the Reserve. Barking deer are seen infrequently in moist riverine stretches. Chinkara (Gazella bennetti Sykes) are infrequently seen on the open areas bordering and outside the Buffer Zone of the Reserve (e.g. Turia, Telia, and Dudhgaon).

The common langur (Semnopithecus entellus Dufresne) and rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta Zimmerman) represent the primate fauna of the area. The Indian porcupine (Hystrix indica Kerr), two species of mongoose viz. common mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii) and ruddy mongoose (Herpestes smithii), and black-naped hare (Lepus nigricollis nigricollis) also occur in this Tiger Reserve.

People

Currently there are no human settlements within the core zone (National Park) of the Tiger Reserve, with the last two forest villages, Alikatta and Chhendia, relocated out in 1992 and 1994 to Durgapur and Khairanji respectively. Villages, inhabited by people of the Gond tribe, small farmers, and labourers, surround the Reserve. The Gond tribals, being forest dwellers, hold great respect for the forest and its fauna, many of which are worshipped. Domestic livestock such as cattle, buffaloes and goats owned by these people frequent the areas adjacent to the Tiger Reserve, many a times falling prey to the wild carnivores of the region.

Research in Pench

Long-term research in Pench was initiated by the study on the interactions between wild animal and their habitat in the Pench Sanctuary by Shukla (1990). This was followed by a tiger-prey estimation study by Karanth and Nichols (1998). Since 1995 the Wildlife Institute of India has initiated a series of studies beginning with a long-term radio-telemetry study on the gaur (Bos frontalis) (Sankar et al. 2000a), followed by the creation of a spatial mapping database for the Tiger Reserve (Sankar et al. 2000b).Short-term Master’s studies from the Wildlife Institute of India increased the knowledge on avifauna (Jayapal 1997), wild herbivores (Acharya 1997), and tiger food habits (Biswas and Sankar 2002) in Pench. Pasha et al. (2004) gave a description on the diversity and distribution of the avifauna of Pench Tiger Reserve.

References

* Acharya, B. B. 1997. Habitat Occupancy by Wild Ungulates In Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. M.Sc. Thesis. Saurashtra University, Rajkot.

* Biswas, S., and K. Sankar. 2002. Prey abundance and food habit of tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) in Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India. Journal of Zoology 256:411-420 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0952836902000456]

* Champion, H. G., and S. K. Seth. 1968. A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India. Manager of Publications, Government of India, New Delhi.

* Forsyth, J. 1919. The Highlands of Central India: Notes on the Forests and Wild Tribes, Natural History and Sports. Chapman and Hall, London, (First published 1871).

* Jayapal, R. 1997. A Study On Bird Communities-Habitat Structure Relationships In Pench National Park, M.P. M.Sc. Thesis. Saurashtra University, Rajkot.

* Karanth, K. U., and J. D. Nichols. 1998. Estimation of tiger densities in India using photographic captures and recaptures. Ecology 79:2852-2862 [http://www.esajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1890%2F0012-9658(1998)079%5B2852%3AEOTDII%5D2.0.CO%3B2]

* Kumar, S. 1989. Management Plan of Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh (1990-1995). Unpublished. Madhya Pradesh Forest Department.

* Pasha, M. K. S., R. Jayapal, G. Areendran, Q. Qureshi, and K. Sankar. 2004. Birds of Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, central India. Newsletter for Ornithologists 1:2-3 [http://www.geocities.com/ashpittie/NLO2004.1-2.PDF]

* Sankar, K., Q Qureshi, M.K.S. Pasha, and G. Areendran, G. 2000a. Ecology of gaur Bos gaurus in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. Final Report. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun.

* Sankar, K., Q. Quresh, V.B. Mathur, S.K. Mukherjee, G. Areendran, M.K.S. Pasha, R. Thapa and P. Lal. 2000b. Mapping of the Protected Area (PA) and surrounding areas in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun

* Shukla, R. 1990. An ecological study of interactions between wild animals and vegetation in Pench Wildlife Sanctuary and its environs. Ph.D. Thesis, Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar. 249 p.

* Sterndale, R. A. 1887. Seonee, or Camp Life on the Satpura Range. Thacker, Spink and Co., Calcutta and Simla.

* Wikramanayake, E. D., E. Dinerstein, J. G. Robinson, U. Karanth, A. Rabinowitz, D. Olson, T. Mathew, P. Hedao, M. Conner, G. Hemley, and D. Bolze. 1998. An Ecology-Based Method for Defining Priorities for Large Mammal Conservation: The Tiger as Case Study. Conservation Biology 12:865-878 [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046%2Fj.1523-1739.1998.96428.x]