Tigress shifted to Bhadra sanctuary
29 Jun 2009, 2152 hrs IST, TNN
MYSORE: The six-year-old tigress that was captured in Nagarahole National Park will now have to get used to a new home. For it will be relocated to the tiger reserve of Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in Chikmagalur district.
The decision follows consultation with the experts in wildlife, who suggested the forest officials to relocate it to some other area far from its present location. This is to cut down chances of the tiger coming back to the area and attacking cattle.
A team led by RFO Satish took the tigress, which was nursed at Sunkadakatte in Nagarhole National Park, to Chikmagalur early Monday. The senior officials of the department contacted the Project Tiger officials and took their consent for its relocation.
Though the Bandipur National Park in Chamarajanagar district was considered as a possible option it was dropped as it is close to Nagarhole National Park, its present territory. “The experts told us there are chances that it will come back again to its territory if it is let out into close by forested areas. So it was decided to change its territory, sources told `The Times of India’. However, it does not face threat from tigers at Bhadra wildlife sanctuary since it is a tigress and will not overlap the territory, they contended.
The prey-predator base at Bhadra is balanced and so the big cat will not have problems. If it was a tiger it could have been a problem for relocation. But there is no such chance here, they added. But a wildlife activist said it could face problems in its new area which could again push it back to take easy route to get its feed. There is a possibility that it could start visiting the villages on the forest fringes in Western Ghats. But the saving grace is that people in the Western Ghats are used to threats from wild animals, he stated. Field director (project tiger) B J Hosmath was not available for comments.
