Ending all speculation, the Odisha Forest Department on Saturday declared that a process to relocate tigress ‘Sundari’ from the Satkosia sanctuary in Angul district to its original habitat in Madhya Pradesh has begun.
After Sundari turned hostile and killed two persons and a bullock at Baghamunda and Tainsi villages near the Satkosia sanctuary in 2018, the big cat was kept in an enclosure at Raiguda in the core area of the sanctuary.
Notably, Sundari along with tiger ‘Mahavir’ was sent to Sakosia from Madhya Pradesh in 2018 as part of the country’s first inter-State tiger translocation project. However, Mahavir was caught in a snare and died four months after being released.
When Sundari tuned hostile, forest personnel tranquilised her and kept in the enclosure.
In December last year, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote to his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik requesting him to ensure proper care of Sundari before shifting her to the Kanha Tiger Reserve in MP.
