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Tiger Takes Care of Injured Tigress & Cubs in Bhopal

The sprawling tiger landscape of Bhopal may not have been a designated national park or a sanctuary but the woody city surroundings have been buzzing with wildlife activities, denied and disregarded by the state forest department.  There is a tiger love story  unfolding  in the forest,  a tigress  with four cubs and  reports of  atleast two pregnant tigresses. The tigers are  multiplying on the city outskirts  and so are the worries of the department.    The Love Story A large contiguous forest area spread over about 150 sq square kms in the jungles around two famous dams- Kolar and Kerwa- is now home of atleast 10 adult  felines. They are resident tigers of Bhopal- born and brought up in the city jungle and termed as the urban tigers.  In fact the tiger landscape is spread beyond these two dams   over a vast swathe of forest.  If we  calculate the area from the boundary  of  Ratapani  sanctuary  to Kewa  , it is 200 sq kms of forest area . In fact, Bhopal's tiger landscape is a pa

Tigress Gets ‘Life Imprisonment’

Tigress Sundari

It’s a tragic story of a beautiful breeding tigress. Four years ago, the tigress was sent from Bandhavgarh national park in Madhya Pradesh (MP) to Satkosia tiger reserve in Odisha along with a male tiger to revive the population of big cats. But apparent mishandling of the first ever interstate tiger relocation programme ended up in poaching of the male tiger named Mahaveer. Sundari, the tigress, landed up in a cage in Odisha where she languished for three years. While she was being shifted from one enclosure to another, the governments of MP and Odisha were engaged in bureaucratic procedures  and passing the buck. Sundari, now about 8 year of age, is condemned to a smaller enclosure of 10000 sq feet in Van Vihar , an open zoo and rescue centre in the state capital of MP where she would spend the rest of her life. It is believed that the inter-state project was launched without proper preparations. The officials in Odisha also did not ascertain the reasons for  declining tiger population in Satkosia.

 One Cage To Other 

Tigress Sundari

Though the Satkosia fiasco has raised many questions ,  the Union ministry  environment , forest and  climate change, the two state governments, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) ,the apex body  for  tiger conservation, have maintained a deafening silence .  Sundari reached Bhopal on July 14 after  a 12 -hour torturing journey by road from Kanha national park to Van Vihar. Spending a 21- day quarantine period, the tigress  spent  a long time  sitting silently in a small cage  as if wondering over the red tapism prevailing in the governments.  Over 3 year of age when she was sent to Odisha, Sundari was a ferocious wild tigress in Bandhavgarh national park. Now she is imprisoned for life in Van Vihar. After dilly dallying, MP responded reluctantly and she was sent to Kanha national park in March 2021. She undertook a painful journey of 612 km by road. 

Must ReadJailed in Jungle: Why Wild Tigress Languishes in Enclosure, Needs to Be Probed

She was housed in a Ghorela   enclosure in the Mukki range of the park for 15 months in an attempt to rewild her.  “Her hunting skills are perfect. During her stay in Ghorela enclosure for rewilding, Sundari preyed on several deer. The problem, however, was the human imprinting and conditional behaviour she developed during her stay in Satkosia enclosure. As the animal still possesses this behaviour, it was not advisable to release her to wild conditions”, officials in Kanha said. She developed a tendency of moving close to humans because of long stay in enclosures in Odisha.” Had we released her in the wild she could have ventured in villages or gone closer to the field staff of the park”, they said. The tigress had allegedly killed two people in Odisha before she was first sent to an enclosure in 2018.

Was Sundari In Enclosure Before Sent to Odisha ?

Tigress Sundari

After the project failed ,  many officials – in the two states as well as in the NTCA- even suspected the claim of the Madhya Pradesh government that Sundari was set from the wild.  “ In 2018 when Sundari was relocated from bandhavrgarh, there were some tigers already in enclosures the park for some or other reason  and had human imprints. Was she one of them? Or she was actually tranquilized from the wild to send to Odisha”, they have questioned.  “The whole issue really needs to be probed thoroughly”,  they said. Mahaveer, who was  brought from Kanha tiger reserve,  was released into Satkosia Tiger Reserve on July 7 while Sundari was released in the tiger reserve on August 17 in 2018.

Also read: Tiger Takes Rest After  Months Of Tourism Stress

 The male tiger, however, was found dead - caught in a poacher's snare - in Satkosia on November 14, 2018, while Sundari was tranquillised and brought back to the holding area in Raigoda after it allegedly attacked local villagers who had ventured into the forest leading to a law and order situation. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in December 2019 suspended the tiger relocation project indefinitely and ordered restoration of the tigress to MP. As the MP Government expressed its 'reluctance' in shifting the tigress, a petition was filed in Madhya Pradesh High Court and in November 2020, the court directed that she be brought back to MP and trained for rewilding. But that too failed and Sundari was sent to Van Vihar. 

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