The tigress has turned man-eater, but instead of eliminating her, forest dept has successfully relocated her to Tadoba and will monitor her continuously
The study of the radio-collared tigress’s movements will give a wealth of information. Pic/Thinkstock
Even as the public pressure to eliminate animals that have turned maneaters has multiplied in the last few months in light of increasing such incidents, the Brahmapuri Forest Division near Nagpur has chosen to take a road less ventured upon. A radio-collared tigress, responsible for the death of cattle and humans that was trapped on Friday afternoon, was successfully relocated to Chaprala Wildlife Sanctuary near Tadoba with the help of a team of experts from Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
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Increasing instances
In the last 3-6 months, there had been increasing incidents of cattle kills near the human habitation in the Bramhapuri Forest Range. “Then there was also the death in Saigaon village, along with three instances of humans getting injured because of the tigress. So the state’s Chief Wildlife Warden gave us permission to capture the tigress and relocate it to the Chaprala sanctuary,” said Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) (Territorial) Chandrapur, Vijay Shelke.
Reasons for the call
The forest department officials and scientists said they felt that the relocation of this tigress to the 134-sqkm sanctuary would give them valuable data about the movement of this tigress. Senior scientist Dr Bilal Habib from the WII said, “Following the incidents of cattle kills and human death and injures due to a tigress, the forest department decided to capture the tigress and safely release in the sanctuary. Now, because of the radio collar, we will be able to generate important data about its movement pattern and behaviour, which will be very helpful.”
The database of its movement pattern in the new landscape will give valuable information to the scientists like the activity pattern of the tigress (day and night movement pattern). According to the officials, its previous habitation had human population in its vicinity, but in the new habitat has decent natural prey so it might not deviate again.
Activists laud decision
The wildlife photographers’ community as also welcomed the move. Sarosh Lodhi, wildlife photographer and founder of Conservation Lenses and Wildlife (ClaW) said, “The forest department has made an appreciable call by not shooting the animal straightaway, but giving it a chance by translocating it.”
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