22.1.13

Sariska relocation project snippets


In another step forward for the Sariska relocation project, at least one more tigress will be relocated to the reserve from Ranthambore on Tuesday morning.
However, forest officials are hopeful of relocating two tigresses at the same time. In fact, if two tigresses are relocated on Tuesday, it will be the first such operation.
The big cats to be relocated are two-year-old tigresses Beena-1 and Beena-2. The tigresses are siblings and were orphaned when they were three months old after their mother, the Kachida tigress, died due to an injury. The cubs were then brought up by forest department officials.
According to state forest and tourism minister Bina Kak, “Preparations for relocation of the tigresses are complete. We will relocate at least one tigress. However, if both cubs are located together, we will relocate both to Sariska. We do not want to separate the cubs. As of today they were spotted moving together.”
Experts from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and National Tiger Conservation Authority have reached Ranthambore. The tigresses are expected to be relocated early on Tuesday morning. This time the tigresses will be brought from Ranthambore to Sariska by road. “The tigresses will be first tranquilized and then put into a large cage which will be mounted onto a vehicle and escorted to Ranthambore,” sources said. The transportation will take about four hours, during which the tigresses will be in a sedated condition.”
According to Kak, “On Sunday, Union forest and environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan visited Sariska. She inspected the forest and the water bodies and was satisfied.”
The addition of these tigresses will take the big cat population in Sariska to nine. The reserve already has two males, three females and two cubs. “The tigresses are just over two years old and are perfectly suited for relocation,” Kak said.


The interim pause in the relocation experiment for re-populating the Sariska tiger reserve with big cats was finally broken when two-year-old tigress Beena 1 was released at the reserve on Tuesday evening.
Wildlife and forest officials tranquilized Beena 1 and fixed a satellite collar in Ranthambhore before it was released at Sariska. The officials are hopeful that its sibling will be tranquilized on Wednesday after which she will also be shifted to Sariska to take the total population of big cats in the reserve to nine.
Tiger relocation to Sariska comes after a long gap. The last tiger, a male ST-6, was relocated to Sariska on February 23, 2011.
Officials of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, managed to tranquilize the tigress at 7.23 am sharp. “We were hopeful that we will also be able to catch her sibling as the duo always stay together. But that was not to be. We waited for about three hours but as we were not able to tranquilize the other tigress we decided to proceed with the relocation of just one tigress today. On Wednesday we shall try relocation Beena 2 to Sariska,” officials of the forest department said.
After the tranquilization the tigress was put in a cage atop a Canter and the vehicle proceeded for Sariska. After about six hours, the vehicle finally reached the gates of the reserve in Alwar and the tigress was taken towards the special enclosure set up near Nayapani for a soft launch.
No sooner was the gates of the cage opened the tigress which had then come back to its senses ran away towards a bush and hid itself. Officials say the tigress will be fed with a bait in the night.
Attending the tiger release was state forest and tourism minister Bina Kak, director of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) Rajesh Gopal, scientists of the WII, including P K Mullick, D R Parag Nigam and Dr Shankar and chief wildlife warden Rajasthan A S Brar.
“The two tigresses are subadults and were straying out of the forest. We have brought them up carefully ever since they were orphaned when they were three months’ old and since we did not want any mishap with them, we decided to relocate them. After shifting its sibling probably tomorrow, we are hopeful of some more relocation and this time from outside the state. We are in talks with Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra governments for getting some big cats from there too,” Kak said.


Re-populating of the Sariska tiger reserve continued for the second day on Wednesday with the relocation of yet another tigress from Ranthambhore. Two-year-old Beena 2, sibling of the tigress relocated on Tuesday, was tranquilized and taken by road to Sariska.

Officials said the tigress was tranquilized in Ranthambhore at 9 am and a satellite collar fixed on her. Later she was put in a cage on a Canter as she began her six hour journey.
The tigress was released in a separate enclosure in Nayapani area of Sariska at 3.35 pm. The tigress immediately ran into a bush. She will be released later in the forest.
On Tuesday, Beena 1 was also shifted to Sariska. The total count of tigers in Sariska has now reached nine – two males, two cubs and five females.

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