Missing

Another Project Tiger-backed sanctuary is showing all signs of having gone the Sariska way. Six years ago, MP’s Panna National Park had more than 40 tigers. On Tuesday, the state forest department relocated a tigress from the Bandhavgarh National Park for the lone tiger there. But the authorities claim that the big cat hasn’t been seen for the past 45 days. While the department says the last male big cat in the park could have wandered off into the neighbouring forests in Chhattarpur, they aren’t sure if it left on its own or has gone missing. “We don’t know where the tiger is. The Wildlife Institute of India has conducted a survey. We are waiting for the report,’’ said principal chief conservator of forests H S Pabla. In the June 2008 edition of an environment magazine, Pabla had claimed that Panna was flourishing with tigers. But in December last, a WWI survey using the camera trap method found only one surviving male in the sanctuary. On Tuesday evening, the forest department tranquillised a four-year-old female tigress in the Tala range of Bandhavgarh National Park and sent her by road to Panna, as the IAF could not provide a helicopter before March 7. Conservationists are questioning the haste with which the tigress was shifted.