Trained elephants Mahendra and Rajkumar reached the Satkosia wildlife sanctuary in the district on Monday to guard Royal Bengal Tigress Sundari. The two pachyderms were brought from Similipal to Satkosia in trucks amid tight security. The jumbos are now being kept at the Purunacourt Range Office.
On the other hand, decision over releasing tigress Sundari from enclosure hasn’t been taken yet, said PCCF (Wildlife) Sandip Tripathy. A dispute was earlier triggered over the relocation of the elephants as the locals of Similipal opposed it. However, the issue was resolved by the Forest Department after discussions with locals.
The tigress was relocated from Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to Satkosia wildlife sanctuary in district on June 28, 2018, as part of a pilot inter-State transfer project to increase the big cat population in Odisha. Sundari was tranquilised on November 6, 2018 and kept inside an enclosure since then after it allegedly killed an elderly man on October 21, 2018 at Tainsi village under Satkosia sanctuary.