Tigress released into Similipal enclosure

Baripada: A tigress, brought from Maharashtra, was safely released into an enclosure in the core area of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Mayurbhanj district on Monday. The tigress was brought from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra under a translocation project to curb in-breeding and improve the gene pool of tigers inside the reserve, which is the only wild habitat for melanistic Royal Bengal tigers.

“The tigress was safely released into a soft enclosure of around two hectares in the core area of Similipal at 9.25 am. The tigress is active and healthy,” Similipal Tiger Reserve Field Director Prakash Chand Gogineni said. The two-and-a-half-year-old tigress was captured in TATR on Saturday morning and brought to Similipal on Sunday afternoon. The forest officials said the enclosure has been created in the core area within the Similipal South division where the wild animal will be kept under observation for at least one to two weeks before its release into the wild.

The translocation of the tigress was done with the permission of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). Two felines from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve will be released into STR and of those, one has already reached here, officials said.

This was Odisha’s second attempt to translocate tigers. In 2018, the State government had made a tiger translocation attempt at Satkosia Tiger Reserve, which no longer has tigers. A tiger named Mahavir was brought from Kanha National Park and a tigress named Sundari from Bandhavgarh National Park, both in Madhya Pradesh, and released in Satkosia. While the tiger died after falling into a trap laid by poachers, the tigress was sent back to its original habitat after it allegedly killed two persons during its 30-month stay in Odisha. With the arrival of the tigress in Similipal, the tiger population in the State has increased to 31, of which 28 are in STR. The STR has a unique population of melanistic tigers.

In-breeding among the closed population has emerged as a looming threat to the striped predators in the protected area. Therefore, the STR authority has decided to bring tigers from Maharashtra.