One dead, tiger relocation halted

BHUBANESWAR: India’s first interstate relocation of tigers was suspended on Thursday after the death of a three-year-old tiger who was shifted from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha’s Satkosia tiger reserve in June this year, officials said.

The body was found nine days after the other big cat relocated to Satkosia, Sundari, was tranquillised and kept in an enclosure in the reserve.

The National Conservation Authority of India (NTCA) issued an advisory to Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to suspend the relocation, in which six tigers (three male and three female) were to be moved to revive the dwindling tiger population in Satkosia, Odisha’s chief wildlife warden Sandip

Tripathi said.

After Mahavir, whose carcass was found on Wednesday, and Sundari, who had been tranquillised in Satkosia, three more of the animals were to be shifted to the reserve from two other national parks in Madhya Pradesh. “Satkosia did not have sufficient prey base to support big cats and it was clear from Sundari having to move out of the core to look for prey,” said former director of Project Tiger (now NTCA) PK Sen, pointing out that

all previous relocation of tigers in India had taken place within a state, two in Rajasthan and one in Madhya Pradesh, in a similar landscape and having an abundant prey base, helping the tigers to adapt.

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