Baripada: A team of state Forest department Thursday reached Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to bring another tigress, an official said. The Forest team would bring another female Royal Bengal Tiger from Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve (TATR) to Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Mayurbhanj district, the offi cial said. Prakash Chand Gogineni, Field Director of Similipal Tiger Conservation Project and Regional Chief Wildlife Warden, said that a ten-member team led by Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Pradeep Dey reached TATR in Maharashtra, Wednesday.
The team includes several Forest department personnel, veterinarian Dr Abhiilash Acharya, deputy range officer Deeptiman Panda, and other trained staff. “The team will capture and bring the second female tiger to Similipal. They will camp and jointly try to capture a female tiger from the wild,” the official said. Earlier, a tigress named ‘Jamuna’ was brought to Similipal, October 27 from TATR in Maharashtra and released in a soft enclosure inside the core area of STR. The objective of the tiger relocation is to infuse a fresh gene pool in Similipal while combating inbreeding. STR houses 27 tigers and 13 among them are pseudo-melanistic due to genetic disorder caused by inbreeding which could, in the long run, adversely impact the population of the normal yellow-coated Royal Bengal Tigers. Meanwhile, Jamuna is getting acclimatised to the habitat in Similipal and is given a prey regularly to hunt in the enclosure. It will be released into the wild after the animal accepts the local environment.
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Earlier, the state’s effort for translocation of tigers from Madhya Pradesh failed due to protests by villagers living on the fringes of Satkosia Tiger Reserve, where one male tiger ‘Mahavir’ and a tigress ‘Sundari’ from Kanha and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserves respectively were introduced in 2018. While Mahavir was found dead, Sundari was sent back to its original habitat in 2021 after it allegedly killed two persons.