India is facing a serious 'problem of plenty'. Rising tiger population in many parts of the country is creating conflict zones. And the tiger- human clashes are going up, alarmingly in many landscapes. The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) needs to take initiatives to control the situation. Fifty years after the project tiger as India moves on from dwindling tiger population to surplus numbers of the big cats, the nation needs an active tiger population management plan. As MoEFC&C yet to become proactive, a team of tiger catchers continue to carry out search operations for the past over five months to capture a tigress with four cubs. Thge team members are scanning Tadoba Andhari Tiger Landscape in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, grappling with the issue of over population of 200 tigers. As many as 53 people lost their lives in Chandrapur in 2022 in tiger attacks while 14 tigers have also died from January 2022 to January this year. This
Two years ago, two wild tigers were relocated from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha under India’s maiden interstate -tiger translocation programme which failed miserably. The two big cats were shifted to Satkosia tiger reserve in Odisha after its tiger population plummeted from 11 in 2004 to 2 in 2014. One of the big cats Mahavir sent from MP was reportedly killed by poachers while Sundari, the tigress, accused of killing two persons, landed behind barbed wires in a small enclosure raising questions over the wildlife management in the country. Many wildlife experts in India feel that the Satkosia fiasco should be probed and the people responsible for the plight of the national animal should be held accountable. Condemned to Captivity Before Sundari was condemned to captivity in Ghorela enclosure in Mukki range of of Kanha National park, the tigress had already spent an agonizing period of 28 months in captivity in Satkosia, where she was sent to find a new home and help popula