Wildlife team to bring another tigress

Baripada: A team of Odisha Forest department on Thursday reached Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to bring another tigress.

The Odisha Forest team would bring another female Royal Bengal Tiger from Tadoba Tiger Reserve to Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj district.

“The team will capture and bring the second female tiger to Similipal. They will camp and jointly try to capture a female tiger from the wild”, an official said.

Earlier, a female tigress, Jamuna, was brought to Similipal on October 27 from Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra and released in a soft enclosure in the STR area. The objective of the tiger relocation is to infuse a fresh gene pool in Similipal while combating inbreeding.

The STR houses 27 tigers and 13 among them are pseudo-melanistic due to genetic disorder caused by inbreeding which could, in the long run, adversely impact the population of the normal yellow-coated Royal Bengal tigers.

Meanwhile, Jamuna is getting acclimatised to the habitat in Similipal and is given a prey to hunt in the enclosure. It will be released into the wild after the animal accepts the local environment, the official said.

Earlier, the State’s effort to translocation of tiger from Madhya Pradesh failed due to protests by villagers living on the fringes of Satkosia Tiger Reserve, where one male tiger ‘Mahavir ‘and a tigress ‘Sundari’ from Kanha Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh respectively were introduced in 2018.

While Mahavir was found dead, Sundari was sent back to its original habitat in 2021 after it allegedly killed two persons.