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Tiger doing fine, tigress not quite

LOST IN SARISKA: The tigress from Ranthambhore who is yet to come to terms with her new surroundings.

JAIPUR: The male tiger introduced into Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar district of Rajasthan ten days ago from Ranthambhore National Park is coping well while the condition of the female, brought in this past Friday, cannot be said to be very good.

The 220-kg male, released from its one-hectare enclosure inside Sariska on Sunday, is said to be on an exploratory mission of the 881 sq km reserve but the female, which is showing clear signs of unease after the translocation, did not care to venture out even after the gates of her enclosure were kept open throughout the day on Monday.

“We opened the gates of the enclosure around 9 a.m. today but the animal has remained inside till now,” said Sariska Field Director P.S. Somasekhar talking to The Hindu in the evening after his return from the core area of the reserve.

“Maybe being a shy animal it chose to remain behind the thickets during the day. We are waiting to find out what it does during the night,” he said.

Worse still, the female tiger, caught from Rajbagh area of Ranthambhore and weighing 160 kg, has not eaten anything after its arrival four days ago.

On the contrary the male, who seems to have adjusted to the new environment, even scored a kill after its release from the enclosure the other day—a sure indication that it can hunt and survive in the wild. While inside the specially made enclosure, the tiger was provided soft targets—mostly sedated deer.

“We are following the movements of the male tiger closely through the radio collar signals. On the first day of its release it was within a kilometre of the enclosure.

Thereafter it moved some 7-8 km south, and by 1 p.m. on Monday he was back to Brahmanath, the earlier location where the prey density is heavy,” Mr. Somasekhar informed. “I think he might go for a second kill,” he added.

The forest team tracking the male tiger could take pictures of it while it crossed a road during the day though they could not take the picture of the previous day’s kill. After warning the people of three forest villages—Haripura, Kundalki and Kraska—about the tiger at large in the woods once again, the authorities are keeping a keen watch on the animal and its surroundings.

“It is proving a tough job,” observed Mr. Somasekhar who remained in the forest throughout the previous night.

The female tiger—about which there is speculation that she might be pregnant—has remained ferocious and is listless inside her enclosure. “The experts are of the view that females take more time to get adjusted to a changed situation. However, it is also a fact that animal behaviour is individualistic,” said Rajpal Singh, member of the Rajasthan Government’s Empowered Committee on Forests and Wildlife.

The Sariska authorities and experts also ruled out the chances of the female tiger being pregnant. “No visible signs of pregnancy are there on her,” said one expert from the Wildlife Institute of India, which is supervising the experiment of tiger re-introduction with the support of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

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