After 4 years, Sariska gets a tiger

Times of India , Sunday, June 29, 2008
Correspondent : Anindo Dey,TNN

A male tiger after being shifted to Sariska National Park in Rajasthan. (TOI Photo)

More Pictures

SARISKA (ALWAR): Sariska almost missed its date with history. Around 3 in the morning, it began to rain. By daybreak, it was bucketing down. You would have had to be a die-hard optimist to believe that a tiger would eventually be flown down during the day.

But it happened. At 11.50, a chopper took off from Ranthambore national park, carrying a very large cage. Inside, lay tranquilized a 220 kg tiger, flying into history. The chopper landed at Sariska at 12.30. The sky was still a threatening grey, but it had stopped raining. Slowly, the crate was brought out, and put on a truck, that drove another 200 metres from the helipad to a 100 ft x 100 ft soft enclosure at Nayapani, the tiger’s new home.

The three-and-a-half-year-old male tiger has no name, but given the attention, he may soon get one. After all, this is the first time anywhere in the world that a tiger — a fiercely territorial large cat — has been relocated from one forest to another.

Tigers vanished from Sariska in 2004, thanks to poaching. This time, however, no one is taking any chances. The tiger has been fitted with a GPS collar to keep watch over its movement using satellite-based tracking systems and watchtowers have been set up all across the enclosure to keep guard 24x7. Over the next two years, there are plans to relocate four more tigers.

But it was the first one, that naturally hogged the limelight.

With the heavy downpour, word went out that the tiger would not be shifted on Saturday. But with rains pausing, as if in deference to the occasion, the air force chopper was able to fly one of the two tigers in waiting at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.

"We have plans of relocating another big cat — a tigress this time — in the next three days. But with the unpleasant situation this afternoon we might postpone the event for some time," said a top forest official on conditions of anonymity.

Chief wildlife warden R N Mehrotra said, "The animal was immobilized by a team of scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun. It was then put inside a custom-made crate and airlifted from Rantahmbore in an MI-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force." The tiger is from the northernmost part of Ranthambore near Anantpura.

"The male brought today is in its prime and is taken easily to its new habitat. There are always risks in such operations but the translocation has been successful with all agencies working in tandem," said Rajesh Gopal, member secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

"The enclosure at Nayapani has the right natural environment the tiger needs and it will be kept here for observation for some time. The animal will then be released in the forest but its movements will be tracked through a radio collar, both from the ground and by satellite," an official said.

The reintroduction of tigers at Sariska was cleared by the PM after the NTCA mooted and the Wildlife Institute of India chalked out a Sariska revival plan with Rajasthan government agreeing to follow up on actions required on ground - relocating villages, diverting traffic that passes through the park and regulating pilgrims to temples in the tiger habitat.

Besides senior state officials, the union environment secretary, Meena Gupta, the member secretary of NTCA, Rajesh Gopal and the Wildlife Institute of India director P R Sinha had pitched camp at the site to ensure a perfect landing for Sariska’s new king.

The next tiger could be introduced within a week, weather permitting, but could be a gap of six to eight months before the third one is relocated. The enclosure for the second tiger — close to that of the first one — is also ready.

A team of WII experts will now monitor the tiger for its release along with state forest officials. WII director P R Sinha said Sariska can accommodate about 50 tigers. "However, we have plans of taking the tiger population to 21 after the release of the first five tigers. We hope that they will breed and take the numbers up. But we may also have to bring in more tigers — not necessarily from Ranthambore — at that stage to help the breeding process."

 
SOURCE : Times of India, Sunday, June 29, 2008
 


Back to pevious page



The NetworkAbout Us  |  Our Partners  |  Concepts   
Resources :  Databases  |  Publications  |  Media Guide  |  Suggested Links
Happenings :  News  |  Events  |  Opinion Polls  |  Case Studies
Contact :  Guest Book  |  FAQs |  Email Us