Baripada: The endeavour of the forest officials to send two trained tuskers from Similipal sanctuary to Satkosia Tiger Reserve Project to keep watch on the movements of the newly-brought Royal Bengal Tiger from Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh received a jolt following opposition from various quarters Monday.
The forest authorities have completed all preparations to send the two trained tuskers –Mahendra Kumar and his adult son Rajkumar to Satkosia after the big cat acclimatised itself in its new home.
The 56-year-old elephant Mahendra Kumar along with two female elephants was brought to Similipal from Karnataka in 2001 to drive away timber smugglers and poachers.
The two elephants will stay alongside the male RBT and keep a close watch on its activities. The tiger seemed to have adjusted with the new climate, environment and forest at Satkosia. Incidentally, the big cat hunted a wild boar, ate it and had its bath Saturday.
The tiger was brought to Odisha as part of an inter-state tiger relocation exercise to increase the tiger population at Satkosia Tiger Reserve, which currently has only two tigers.
Forest officials brought the two elephants from the Similipal sanctuary to the range office at Dhobadiha in Jasipur Friday. Efforts were made to take them to Satkosia by a truck after conducting their health check-up Saturday.
The efforts, however, proved unsuccessful as the animals could not board the truck Saturday. They also failed to shift them Sunday,” said assistant conservator of forest (ACF) Arun Kumar Biswal.
The plan to shift them to Satkosia Monday was also foiled after some animal lovers and political outfits voiced their opposition to the shifting of the trained elephants elsewhere.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, a tribal political outfit, strongly argued against shifting the tuskers and warned of an agitation if the forest officials go ahead with their plan, its central committee member Kalinga Keshari Jena said.
The deputy field director Jagnyadatt Pati, however, said that the two tuskers are being sent for training.
Meanwhile, the shifting of the two tuskers have been postponed, ranger Ramakant Majhi said. He said that the tuskers have not been able to climb the trucks due to the presence of large number of people at the range office. A conducive atmosphere is needed to make them climb the truck for which services of a master trainer from Baripada has been requisitioned, he said. The shifting process will be expedited after the completion of the training, he said, but refused to give a timeframe for the shifting
PNN