Bhubaneswar: Wildlife wing of Forest Department will be visiting Maharashtra on Thursday to begin the process for relocating another Bengal tigress from Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve to Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj.
The team comprises a veterinarian, a range officer and an assistant conservator of forests (ACF). It will take them a week to bring the tigress to the state, sources said.
Odisha had set the ball rolling for the ambitious tiger relocation project in Similipal landscape with arrival of the first big cat, Jamuna, from Maharashtra on October 27. It was aimed at infusing 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 has been put in a quarantine enclosure to acclimatise to the habitat and given prey to hunt in the enclosure. It is likely to be released into the wild very soon.
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The inter-state tiger translocation is considered significant since it is the first in the state since suspension of a similar programme between Odisha and Madhya Pradesh in 2019 after it ran into trouble amid severe protests by villagers living on the fringes of Satkosia Tiger Reserve, where one male tiger Mahavir and a tigress Sundari from Kanha Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh respectively were introduced in 2018. While Mahavir was later found dead, Sundari was sent back to its original habitat in 2021 after it allegedly killed two persons.
The Forest department has also received nod from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to introduce three more tigers, two male and a female, in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. However, this may take some more time to commence, the sources added.
The suspended tiger relocation programme in Satkosia subject can also be resumed subject to compliance to certain conditions, including voluntary relocation of villages, creation of more inviolate space and enhanced protection measures.
