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Another tigress for Sariska

Sunny Sebastian

Photo: Special arrangement

The newly introduced tigress inside the enclosure in Sariska Tiger Reserve on Wednesday.

JAIPUR: Three is company at the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan’s Alwar district now with one more female feline getting airlifted to the area from Ranthambhore National Park in a smooth operation on Wednesday. Sariska, which had lost all its tigers in the wild some time in 2004-05, now has three, including the male-female pair which was re-introduced into the park in a path-breaking experiment last June-July.

“We got the tigress of our choice,” said Rajpal Singh, member of the Rajasthan Wildlife Advisory Board, who accompanied the animal and other experts on the Indian Air Force ME 107 helicopter from Moordongri helipad in Ranthambhore to Nayapani airstrip inside Sariska, soon after the successful operation.

“We now can claim some expertise in shifting tigers,” an obviously jubilant Mr. Singh, who had been part of the earlier operations, added.

The young tigress, weighing 143 kg and in the age group of two to three-and-a-half years, was tranquilized at Guda in Ranthambhore park at 6-40 a.m. and shifted soon after into a specially made cage. The IAF helicopter -- carrying Rajasthan’s Chief Wildlife Warden R.N. Mehrotra, experts from the Wildlife Institute of India, Parag Nigam and K. Shanker, and Safayat Hussain, Field Director of Ranthambhore Park, besides Mr. Rajpal Singh -- took off at 10-30 a.m, to reach its destination in Sariska at 11-15 a.m. Upon reaching, the cage was opened for the tigress to walk out into the enclosure.

“The tigress has been shifted to the special enclosure,” informed P.S. Somasekhar, Field Director of Sariska Tiger Reserve. “This time the animal took a few more minutes to come out of sedation than the previous tiger. The rise in temperature could be a factor,” he said comparing the previous exercise of the kind.

Once the tigress gets acclimatised to the new environs it will be released from the enclosure into the wild.

“The time period needed for acclimatisation differs from animal to animal. The first tiger brought to the park from Ranthambhore, a male, took seven days while the next one, a female, was to be released on the third day as it showed reluctance in killing the prey inside the cage,” Mr. Somasekhar said.

The authorities plan to introduce two more tigers to Sariska as part of the present experiment, being carried out under the supervision of WII after a joint protocol among National Tiger Conservation Authority, WII and Rajasthan Forest Department.

Amid exuberance and cheer over the successful progression of the tiger re-introduction experiment, there is cautious optimism among a group of conservationists who feel the protocol signed among the parties should be strictly followed.

“The protocol speaks of selecting the ‘transient’ tigers for shifting out of Ranthambhore. The latest catch seems to be one of the tigers from the Lahpur area and not anyone which is habitually truant,” environmentalist Harsh Vardhan pointed out. “There are five-six unsettled young tigers moving in and out of the Ranthambhore Park. One of them should have been the target,” he argued.

However, the Forest authorities here swear by the appropriateness of the latest -- as well as the two previous -- catch. “Going by the guidelines, this one was the proper candidate. The animal used to frequent the nearby Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary,” asserted Mr. Somasekhar.

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