At a time when Ranthambore National Park (RNP) authorities were looking forward to shifting some of the yellow cats in the recently created third tiger sanctuary — Mukandra Hills Tiger Reserve — a young tiger from this famous tiger forest reached Datia in Madhya Pradesh covering a distance of over 200 kilometres in search of a new territory. According to wildlife experts, this is one of the rarest incidents.
Recently wildlife authorities and villagers were surprised to spot first tiger in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, which is not the usual habitat of tigers. As this area is close to Kota region of Rajasthan, the Kuno authorities immediately contacted their counterparts in RNP.
When field officers of both the States matched the computer generated pictures of the two-year-old tiger with its stock picture at Wildlife Institute of India, they were stunned to learn that it was the same tiger, which had gone missing from Ranthambore in January. Teams from Kuno and RNP spotted the tiger on March 27. They were shocked at the
plight of the tiger from RNP, which is overflowing with
tiger population.
According to latest data, RNP has 50 tigers and nearly half of them are cubs. “Initially this young tiger had strayed away to a nearby locality, Khandar area, where his pug marks were found on January 25. As we were tracking it regularly, after few days he was spotted in Gopaz Ghati area, near Kailadevi Sanctuary,” said YK Sahu, deputy conservators of RNP.
A three-member team, headed by Sahu, including Dharmendra Khandal of Tiger Watch and Ayan Sandhu, a young researcher at WII, was formed to track the movement of the tiger. In February, the team learnt that the tiger had crossed the Chambal river and had entered the adjoining forest in MP.
In the first week of March, the officials of forest division of Datia in MP reported the movement of a tiger in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary. However, with the killing of a boar in Seoda range on March 27, forest official got alerted. Their information was matched with villagers, who had seen this tiger in the area. A camera trap was laid and they got three pictures of the tiger. They also got in touch with RNP officials. After examining the pictures they concluded that it was the same tiger, who had run away from RNP in January.
In 2011, tigress T-26 had given birth to three cubs. Though two others remained in RNP, this one ventured out in search of new area, said Sahu. However, the RNP officials heaved a sigh of relief on learning that the tiger is safe.