Two hand-reared tigress to be shifted to Panna

Bhopal, Oct 10 (PTI) Two hand-reared tigress from
Madhya Pradesh's Kanha tiger reserve would soon be shifted to
adjacent Panna sanctuary to give company to three translocated
big cats there, the first such experiment in the country.
"The two orphaned siblings have been hand-raised since
2005 when their mother was mauled to death by a male tiger and
are likely to be translocated this month-end," sanctuary's
field director S Murthy told PTI.
The Panna sanctuary has presently three tigers -- a
male from Pench national park and two females from Kanha and
Bandhavgarh --shifted last year as part of the government's
programme to repopulate the species there after it lost all
of them to poachers. In May, a tigress gave birth to four
cubs, the first by any translocated tigress in the country.
Of the four, only two cubs have survived while the
others are feared dead.
With two more tigresses, the sanctuary will have a
total of five big cats-- one male and four females.
In all, the Madhya Pradesh government has secured
permission for translocation of six big cats — four females
and two male — to Panna.
Murthy says predators being entirely solitary animal
exhibit unique behaviour. "And it would be interesting to
watch how the five big cats including the mother tigress with
its two cubs bond with each other since all of them are from
virtually different background and habitat."
It would be for the first time that a semi-wild
tigresses, to be monitored constantly through radio-collar,
will be released in the wild.
"They are already acclimatised with the wild habitat
and we don't think they would have any problem once they are
on their own," said Murthy, who has been tracing the behaviour
of all the big cats since they were first introduced in Panna
in the cetral Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking about the prized inhabitants, he said a
tigress picked from the buffer of Kanha sanctuary avoids human
presence.
"Her visibility has been very less. I have not been
able to sight her much. On the contrary, the one from
Bandhavgarh which gave birth to four cubs in May can be seen
frequently as she has been used to human presence in her
original home." PTI AJ

MHM