Odisha To Get 5 Royal Bengal Tigers In Another Translocation Project

Bhubaneswar: In another inter-state translocation project, five Royal Bengal Tigers (RBTs) will be relocated to two wildlife sanctuaries in Odisha this year.

According to sources in Forest department, all the five tigers will be brought from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra for relocation in Odisha. While three of the big cats will be released in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Sambalpur district, two others will be relocated to Similiplal Wildlife Sanctuary in Mayurbhanj district.

The sources said the process of translocation of the tigers will be carried out in a phased manner in August and October. While the big cats will be released in Debrigarh in August, the process for Similipal will be completed by October.

It may be noted that in the county’s first inter-state translocation project in 2018, a tigress was shifted from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha. The five-year-old tigress spent 28 months in captivity in Satkosia Tiger Reserve before being sent back to home state.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had shelved the inter-state tiger translocation drive at the time due to various loopholes in the project.