Bhubaneswar: The inter-state tiger translocation project in Odisha is likely to continue despite the death of a translocated tiger at Satkosia Tiger Reserve, a senior Forest department official said Saturday.
“The project will continue after discussions with the state department, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and National Tiger Conservation Authority,” said the officer quoting the expert team of NTCA and WII.
The NTCA had put the inter-state tiger translocation project on hold a day after the body of three-year-old male tiger was recovered at Satkosia Tiger Reserve area in Angul district. Under the project, six tigers were supposed to be brought to Odisha from Madhya Pradesh.
A statement released by the field director of Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) said the post mortem report of the tiger indicated that the death occurred due to infected antemortem maggoted wound followed by multi organ failure.
NTCA Inspector General, Amit Mallick, who visited the site of tiger’s death, said “The exact cause of the death is yet to be ascertained. We will analyse the cause of the death on the basis of the post-mortem report.”
Mallick later met Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Wildlife, Sandip Tripathy at his office. K Ramesh, an expert of the WII, who had also gone with the NTCA team to Satkosia for investigation, said the post-mortem of the tiger has been done in accordance with the NTCA protocol.
“It was a very unfortunate incident, the WII will seriously review the safety of the tigers in the coming days. Following the death of the Royal Bengal tiger Mahavir (MB2), whose carcass was found November 14,” Ramesh said.
“Poaching effort of tiger did not seem to be the case. But, we need to study the postmortem clearly and will also look into internal investigation,” Ramesh told reporters.
The translocated tiger that died Wednesday, was brought from the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh June 20 and kept inside the enclosure at Raigoda June 21. After observing his behaviour, the forest officials had released him in the wild of Satkosia July 6.
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