Thaindian News

Bhopal, Nov 12 (IANS) A tigress of the Kanha National Park, whose sister had been translocated eight month ago to Madhya Pradesh’s Panna National Park, was sent to join her Saturday, wildlife officials said.

The tigress was sent by road under the supervision of wildlife doctors and officers of Kanha National Park, spread over the state’s Mandla and Balaghat district, to Panna in Panna district, 450 km away.

Since they are travelling slowly, it is expected that it will take around 15 hours to reach Panna.

“For the purpose of translocation, the tigress was tranquilized at about 8 a.m. today (Saturday), Kanha Tiger Reserve’s Region Director J.S. Chauhan told IANS.

Deputy Director H.S. Mohanta said that various physical parameters of the tigress were recorded and a radio-caller attached to her in the presence of Wildlife Institute of India (Dehra Dun) specialists.

The six-year-old tigress is among the three cubs that survived after their mother died fighting a tiger.

These cubs were later housed in a specially-built enclosure in Mukki Circle by Kanha management with a view to exposing them to killing of prey. The male cub was shifted to Van Vihar, Bhopal about three years ago while the two tigresses had successfully developed their natural instinct of killing prey in the enclosure.

The mother trains her cubs in the killing if prey and if she dies before she can do so, such cubs cannot be released in the wild and are sent to zoos.

Earlier, the sister of this tigress was released in Panna National Park in March this year where she has survived successfully.

The Kanha and Panna national parks are two of the six tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh. The 1,945 sq km Kanha park was set up in 1955. According to Tiger Census-2011, Kanha has about 60 tigers.

Spread across more than 500 sq km, Panna was created in 1981. Currently, Panna has four adult tigers and two cubs.