Bhubaneswar: With the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) suspending the tiger translocation programme in Odisha’s Satkosia Reserve, the Odisha government is all set to return a female big cat to Madhya Pradesh from where she was brought in June last year, officials said.
The animal has been kept in a restricted open enclosure after she had allegedly killed two persons in the tiger reserve in Angul district. It has been christened as Sundari. The NTCA had objected to it, saying that the tigress cannot be allowed to be kept in a small enclosure.
In a letter to the Chief Secretary of Odisha, the NTCA had said, in the interest of tiger conservation, the animal shall be withdrawn and brought to ‘Ghorela Centre’ at Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh with immediate effect for re-wilding and subsequent release to a suitable habitat.
“We have written to the Madhya Pradesh government to take back the tigress in view of the NTCA’s directive,” Odisha Chief Wildlife Warden Hari Shankar Upadhay told reporters, Friday. He added that the MP government will make arrangements to shift the tigress.
The NTCA had informed the Odisha government that the translocation programme at Satkosia Tiger Reserve will remain suspended till the ground situation improves.
It should be stated here that another male tiger was allegedly poached inside the Satkosia forest last year.
PNN & Agencies
