Angul: As of now, she is a guest of few hours only. She was brought to Odisha in 2018. And she will return to her home state at any moment Sunday. The guest is none other than the tigress Sundari.
To take her back to Madhya Pradesh, a six-member team is coming to Angul. They will have a discussion with Satkosia forest officers before visiting the tigress in her enclosure. Upon completion of all formalities, they along with Sundari will return to Madhya Pradesh.
Notably, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) September 1, 2017 had decided to send six tigers to Odisha under an interstate tiger translocation project in a phase-wise manner. The objective was a good one- to increase the number of tigers in Odisha.
Much to the delight of animal lovers in Odisha, in the first phase, a tiger named ‘Mahaveer’ was brought to Satakosia Tiger Reserve from Kanha National Park July 6, 2018.
Thereafter, in the second phase, tigress ‘Sundari’ was brought from Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve August 17, 2018 and was released into Satkosia Tiger Reserve.
At a time when four more tigers were to be brought to Odisha, the interstate tiger translocation project suffered a jolt in the form of tiger Mahaveer’s death. The tiger was found dead November 11, 2018.
Sundari was released into the wild August 17, 2018. The tigress caused havoc among the villagers residing close to Satakosia Tiger Reserve by attacking human beings and livestock. She killed a woman Kailashi Sai from Hatibari village September 12, 2018 and again killed another man named Trinath Sahu in Tainsi village October 21, 2018.
This made the villagers angry and they protested against the big cat having been released into the wild. This is why the tigress was required to be relocated into a special rehabilitation enclosure in November, 2018.
PNN