2.1. STUDY AREA
The study was primarily conducted at two neighbouring sites in the Eastern Vidarbha Tiger Landscape within the greater Central Indian Tiger Landscape. The Two sites were; the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) (Figure 1). TATR (19.95428 E to 20.51695 E and 79.12749 N to 79.73494 N) is 625 km² and NNTR (20.86209 E to 21.44738 E and 79.69802 N to 80.39064 N) is 656 km² (core) in area. Both the study sites are in the Deccan Plateau zone according to the biogeographic classification of India (Rodgers & Panwar, 1988) and are located at a distance of ~85 km from each other. The study sites experience subtropical climate with three distinct seasons- summer, monsoon, and winter. The Reserves receive southwest monsoons with rainfall (1100-1500 mm) persisting from June to September. The Forest type is Southern tropical dry deciduous (Champion & Seth, 1968). Teak (Tectona grandis) is the dominant species followed by Terminalia tomentosa and Lagerstroemia parviflora in the study sites. The terrain type is mostly plain with shallow valleys and rounded hills. Tiger, leopard and dhole form the major predatory guild in the study sites and chital (Axis axis) , sambar (Rusa unicolor) , nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) , wild pig (Sus scrofa ), gaur (Bos gaurus) , barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac) are the major prey species (Dhanwatey et al., 2013).