Bhubaneswar: A Royal Bengal tigress from Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh will soon join the three-year-old tiger recently released into an enclosure at Satkosia Sanctuary in Odisha’s Angul district.
In the country’s first-ever relocation initiative by the Forest department, the tiger had arrived in the reserve from Kanha National Park in the neighbouring state on June 21.
The tigress is being brought in a special vehicle by a team of Forest officials and veterinary doctors of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh and experts from Wildlife Institute of India (WWI).
However, the Forest officials have not disclosed the route through which the tigress is being brought due to security reasons.
“We expect the tigress to reach Satkosia Sanctuary by the end of this week. As the team will cover a distance of more than 700 km from Bandhavgarh National Park to Satkosia Sanctuary, the duration of the travel would be comparatively more,” additional principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) and Field Director, Satkosia Sanctuary, Sudarshan Panda told mediapersons here on Thursday.
He said a special enclosure to house the tigress has been built near the one where the tiger is being kept. “The arrangements inside the special enclosure for the tigress would be the same as that for the tiger,” he added.
Panda said the tigress will also be fitted with both GPS and a satellite tracker to monitor her movement inside the enclosure. The customized radio collar will help track the two big cats in the dense forest after they are released into the wild.
Once the Bengal tiger and tigress are accustomed to the Satkosia environment, two more pairs of Bengal tigers would be brought from the Kanha National Park and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to increase their population in the sanctuary, he added.
