The killing of a hand-reared tiger by a dominant male and the disappearance of a hand-reared tigress from Kanha Reserve in Madhya Pradesh has raised doubts among conservationists whether hand-reared tigers should be released in the wild.
According to experts, neither of them could be tutored on the basic survival instincts which a mother passes on to the cub. Further, in the case of dead tiger, there should have been proper assessment of the area of its release on the presence of any resident male tiger.
According to Deputy Field Director Kanha, OP Tiwari, the two-and-half-year-old male tiger suffered from multiple fractures and deep wounds on its limb, caused due to territorial in-fighting. The death of the tiger was caused due to excessive bleeding, he said.
In a yet another incident, the missing tigress was last sighted by forest staff and the local villagers on Maharashtra border. Tiwari admitted that radio collar of the tigress has encountered problems and signals are not available. The Field Director Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra has been apprised of the situation, but the tigress is yet to be sighted in Kanha.
The experts have questioned on the release of the hand reared tiger in Kanha, which already has high density of tigers. According to official figures, there are 90 adult tigers and about 24 cubs in the reserve.
They pointed out further, that in order to survive in the wild the cubs are trained by their mother in honing their skill of stalking and killing prey animals. They argued that this aspect of survival in the wild cannot be taught by humans when a cub is hand reared. Since this cub was a hand reared one, chances of its survival in wild were quite remote.
They added that before releasing a hand reared tiger in wild, the park authorities should have ensured that the area did not have the presence of a dominant resident male. Since the aspect was not taken into account, the animal was eventually overpowered by a stronger resident male in the territorial fight.
In September 2012, the forest officials had rescued three cubs aged three months - one male and two females - from the park after the death of their mother. These cubs were first hand-reared in a small enclosure at Mukki for six months before being shifted in a 56 hectare enclosure at Ghodela. In October 23, 2013 the three radio collared cubs were released in Kisli and Mukki zones of Kanha respectively.
The sources confirmed that the female moved out of the park after barely one month of its release and was last seen in Mukki on November 23, 2013. The male too used to stray to near villages after its release. Whenever the tiger moved to nearby villages, the staff would push it inside the park with the help of elephants, resulting in the disaster.