Expert Team Arrives In Satkosia To Tranquilize Sundari

Angul: A six-member expert team arrived in Satkosia sanctuary in Odisha’s Angul district on Tuesday morning to tranquilize the Royal Bengal tigress Sundari.

The team comprising experts from the Bhubaneswar-based College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT), Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, two veterinary doctors from the Similipal Tiger Reserve, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, and a Gun Assistant left Angul early in the morning and arrived at the Sanctuary at around 9 am.

The team led by the additional conservator (ACF), Satkosia, Srikant Behera, and accompanied by two platoons of the armed police force will begin their operation very soon.

“We have sent a tranquilizing team to Satkosia following the instruction of the Chief Wildlife Warden to capture the Bengal tigress. The team will be accompanied by a forester of Satkosia sanctuary and the local people,” in-charge DFO, Angul, V. Kartik told mediapersons here.

Forest guards, through GPS tracking, have located the presence of the tigress inside the forest between Kumuri village and Baghamunda village, he said.

“We have requested the villagers to remain inside their house till the tigress is tranquilised. The tigress will then be kept inside the enclosure at Raiguda in the Satkosia Tiger Reserve,” Kartik added.

Sundari was kept in the same enclosure after being brought from the Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh on June 28.