Bhubaneswar: To bolster big cat population in Odisha, forest officials have begun the process of relocating five Royal Bengal Tigers from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, with the transfer scheduled to be completed in September.
According to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF)-Wildlife, Susanta Nanda, three of these tigers will be released into the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Sambalpur, while the remaining two will be introduced into the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj.
“On our request, both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have given their consent for relocation of their tigers to Odisha. They have also identified the tigers from core areas of their forests,” Nanda told media persons Wednesday.
Two teams of Odisha forest officials will visit the two states very soon, within a week, to see the tigers, he said.
In its latest tiger estimation conducted for the first time during 2023-24 in 47 forest divisions of Odisha, 30 tigers and eight cubs were found.Out of the 30 Royal Bengal Tigers, 27 were found in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR), while Keonjhar territorial and Keonjhar wildlife, Paralakhemundi territorial, and Hirakud wildlife had one tiger each.
The PCCF also said that the Nandankanan Zoological Park is all set to welcome two giraffes by the end of this month.
The pair of giraffes will be brought to the zoo from Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata under the animal exchange programme, he said.
At present, one giraffe named ‘Khushi’ is in the Nandankanan zoo. The addition of two new giraffes will further enhance the animal population in the zoo, he added.
Meanwhile, the male lion ‘Krish’, born in the Nandankanan zoo in 2004, died on Wednesday due to old age.
PTI
