Preparations are afoot for the intra translocation of Cheetals in the tiger reserve Palamu. 

It's wait now for the customized vehicle for it. It is to come from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh here. 

The vehicle is expected to be here in the third week of December. The driving distance between Jabalpur and Betla National Park is more than 630 kms. 

Once this customized vehicle arrives here, Cheetals of the Betla National Park will be shifted to 4 soft release centres readied right in the tiger reserve 2 divisions north and south. 

It's like Cheetals of Betla to be housed some 40 kms or so away from their ancestral home Betla. There is no outside entry of the Cheetals here. 

The shifting of the Cheetals will be in the ratio of 1 male and 3 females said the deputy director north division of PTR P K Jena. 

Jena said "We are putting in three females for one male with the obvious reason to fast multiplication of their progeny as we need more and more of Cheetals for our carnivores."

There is an imbalance in Cheetal strength in the north and south divisions of the PTR. 

North division has plenty of Cheetals while Cheetals are scarce in the south division of PTR. 

These soft release centres are to increase their breed to have a semblance of equality in numbers of them in each of the two divisions. 

The shifting is to be done with the BOMA technique. It's safe for wild life. BOMA technique is going to be the first launch here in the PTR when it's almost a routine thing in the tiger bearing state Madhya Pradesh. 

As the launch of the BOMA technique is first and novel here in the PTR, right from the field director PTR Kumar Ashutosh to deputy director Jena and his team are very meticulously planning to ship the Cheetals here to 4 soft release centres readied in the PTR. 

The shifting of Cheetals will be in accordance with the protocol for it as laid by the NTCA (national tiger conservation authority).

The customized vehicle has facility for scanning male and female Cheetals. Antlers having Cheetals are males while female Cheetals do not possess branched bone on head. 

Jena said "As Cheetals will love to board the customized vehicle we will peacefully scan them for gender and then extra ones whom we are not shipping will be gently dropped off the vehicle to enjoy life in the jungles as it's 1 male Cheetal for 3 female ones to undertake the journey for new home but in the same PTR."

The journey for new home is neither any longish, torturous, through unknown terrain nor to some new climate etc but it's from the PTR and within the PTR only. 

"We will begin with a very small number of Cheetals maintaining this gender ratio. The customized vehicle that is coming to us from Jabalpur has intake capacity of 20 Cheetals for translocation in one frequency  but we to be on the safe side will be ferrying small group of 1 male and 3 female Cheetals." added Jena. 

The first translocation destination is Lokaiyya and Heren Degwa soft release centres of the north division of the tiger reserve Palamu. 

Here are readied 2 soft release centres each in 15 hectares of land having home capacity of 30 Cheetals each. 

Under the south division of the tiger reserve Palamu Teno and Jogia Dera soft release centres are much bigger, more than double of the hectares of the north division soft release centres. 

Teno and Jogia Dera soft release centres are spread over in 40 hectares each having intake capacity for 80 Cheetals each. End