2nd Tigress Arrives In Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve From Maharashtra

Representative pic; courtesy: ANI

Bhubaneswar: As part of Odisha government’s tiger relocation project, second tigress from Maharashtra arrived at Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Mayurbhanj district on Thursday.

According to sources, a team of Wildlife wing of the Forest Department had gone to Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to look after the process of translocation of another tigress to Similipal. The team comprised a veterinarian, a range officer and an assistant conservator of forests (ACF).

After a week-long process, tigress Ganga was safely shifted from Maharashtra and brought to Similipal on Thursday, the sources said. On October 27, tigress Jamuna was brought to the tiger reserve as per the department’s plan.

Jamuna, who was kept in a quarantine enclosure to acclimatise to the habitat and given prey to hunt in the enclosure, has been released in the wild.

Now STR has 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.

The state government has launched the ambitious tiger relocation project in Similipal landscape to infuse a fresh gene pool in the reserve forest while combating inbreeding.