Bhubaneswar: The Madhya Pradesh government has sent an eight-member team from the Kanha National Park to take back tigress Sundari from Satkosia to her native state.
The move to send back Sundari to Madhya Pradesh comes after India’s maiden inter-state tiger relocation programme failed to yield the desired results and Sundari could not be resettled in Satkosia, Forest department officials told Orissa POST.
“Eight officials from MP, a deputy director rank official, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF), a veterinary doctor, have been dispatched to Odisha. They will examine the health of Sundari and look into the feasibility of relocating the tigress,” SK Singh, Director, Kanha National Park, told this reporter.
Singh further said, “We have sent a big van for the translocation of the tigress. First, we will examine the health of Sundari and other conditions. If we find all things are favourable, we will recommend taking her back to MP by March 25. We don’t want to delay the process as monsoon can make the transportation difficult,” he said.
According to the forest department, relocating Sundari may be an arduous task keeping in mind the movement of a tigress inside the van and travelling around 800 km, which may take more than 24 hours.
Alok Kumar, Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Madhya Pradesh, said that adequate approvals from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Madhya Pradesh government have already been obtained. He, however, said that the relocation will be done with the mutual consent of the two governments.
Kumar said, “Most of the tiger reserves in MP are known to harness tigers and help in their rewilding. Since Kanha has a vacant enclosure now Sundari can be shifted there. There the tigers are kept in a natural environment where they are provided with natural prey (live animals) to help them revive their natural instincts,” he said.
Kanha has around 800 sq km for tigers and is known for rewilding animals since 2002. This reserve forest is known to be unfrequented by humans. The entire translocation exercise was stalled earlier due to COVID-19 as well as technical and logistic problems in MP, which was reluctant to take back Sundari.
The maiden experiment of India’s inter-state tiger relocation programme will receive a setback with Sundari’s return to Madhya Pradesh. In 2018, the MP government had sent a tiger named Mahavir and tigress Sundari to Odisha. While Mahavir was killed in alleged poaching activity, Sundari was kept in an enclosure after she attacked some villagers.
