According to Indian researchers, the Himalayan tiger usually lives in low and low mountain ranges and, under the influence of human pressure and climate change, is increasingly moving to high altitudes, reaching up to 4,000 meters.
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Automatic cameras in Sikkim in the Indian Himalayas have provided “numerous images” of these cats at altitudes of up to 3,966 meters, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Indian wildlife institute, announced.
Unlike the snow leopard, which naturally lives at very high altitudes, Bengal tigers generally prefer the forests of the massif's valley floors, notes Qamar Qureishi, research director at WII.
“The fact that they go to the mountains proves that they are under pressure,” emphasizes the biologist.
In Nepal and Bhutan, two other Himalayan countries, tigers have been spotted at altitudes of more than 4,000 meters.
But this new result shows an acceleration of the phenomenon in India, where previous records were set at 3,602 meters in 2019 and 3,640 meters a year ago, recalls Anurag Danda, director of the WWF organization's Indian branch.
“Small Islands”
For Pooja Pant, researcher at WII, the main cause of this development is most likely “climate change and increased human pressure”.
Pranabesh Sanyal, a tiger expert from Calcutta, recalls that “temperatures at high altitudes have risen faster than those below 2,000 meters in the last two decades,” offering the possibility of a “new habitat” for tigers.
The species is also facing…an increase in its population, Mr. Qureishi recalls.
At the time of independence in 1947, the country's tiger population was estimated at 40,000 animals. In 2006 it fell to 1,411 animals before returning to the 3,000 mark thanks to conservation programs.
In fact, India has tripled protected areas in half a century, now reaching almost 76,000 square kilometers, an area larger than that of neighboring Sri Lanka.
However, most of the country's 53 protected areas remain “small islands in an ocean of unsustainable exploitation of space,” says the Indian Report on the State of the Tiger.
Technological bias?
The pressure on the big cat is “increasing everywhere,” confirms Shrikant Chandola, former head of the forest department of the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
“The number of prey is decreasing” and “young tigers are driving older tigers away” from the best territories, emphasizes this expert.
Tigers are also becoming more aggressive toward humans: In January, an attack near the Corbett reserve in Uttarakhand left three dead and two injured, angering the population.
Its director, Dheeraj Pandey, is increasing prevention campaigns to avoid accidents. But “you can’t tell a tiger to go here and not there,” he remembers.
As a result, more and more tigers are escaping to higher altitudes, as WII's work suggests.
Although he does not deny the phenomenon, Qamar Qureishi nevertheless points to a possible technological bias in reproducing images of the big cat at high altitudes.
“With the development of camera traps, cell phones and thermal detection devices, it is much easier to photograph them than before,” he notes.