Tigress Sundari’s Release Into Wild Uncertain

Bhubaneswar: The prospect of releasing tigress Sundari, kept in an enclosure in the core area of Satkosia sanctuary in Odisha’s Angul district, into the wild appears uncertain.

The state forest department and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have confirmed that there was no possibility of releasing the tigress into the wild at present.

This was revealed at a meeting between forest department and NTCA officials at Prakruti Bhawan in Bhubaneswar on Monday afternoon.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, the officials said that since the tigress has been kept inside the enclosure for more than eight months, efforts will be made to bring her wild instincts back so that she would be able to survive after her release.

“It is most likely that the tigress will be shifted from Satkosia sanctuary to the Satkosia Wildlife Division where she will be released into an enclosure of 25 hectares. The entire process will be taken up as per the suggestion of the NTCA,” Chief Wildlife Warden Sandip Tripathy said.

The Forest department had brought Sundari from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and released her inside the enclosure at Raiguda in the core area of Satkosia sanctuary on June 18 last year. Later, she was released into the wild on August 18 the same year.

However, following the killing of a woman of Hatibari village on September 12 and later a man of Tainsi village on October 27, she was tranquillized and put into enclosure on November 6.