Rain delayed translocation of tigress
BHOPAL (IANS): On Friday the heavy rain that pounded parts of Madhya Pradesh has delayed the translocation of a tigress from the Kanha National Park to Panna forest, an official informed Saturday.
The tigress will be released in the Mandla forest range of Panna. Her journey was originally scheduled for December last year but had to be postponed as she was injured in a fight with another tigress in Kanha.
The two tigresses have been selected for the translocation from Kanha as part of a government programme to reintroduce the big cats in Panna National Park. The other tigress will be shifted later.
H.S. Negi, field director of Kanha National Park, told IANS, “There was unusually heavy rain so the process could not begin yesterday (Friday) night. However, today (Saturday) morning we tranquilized the tigress by 8 o’clock (a.m.) and our vehicle moved from here (Kanha Park) at 8.30 (a.m.).”
The tigress was expected to complete her 450-km road journey to Panna National Park, also in Madhya Pradesh, Saturday night.
‘It was absolutely perfect process and we hope they would reach Kanha by 10 o’clock tonight,’ he added.
Cinematographer S. Nalamuthu, who is accompanying the team to capture the process, told IANS: ‘The process is okay but the movement (of the convoy) has kept very slow. So we hope to reach Panna late in the night.’
India’s latest tiger census report will be released at an international tiger conference being organised at the Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi March 28-30.
About 200 delegates, including officials from 13 tiger range countries and experts from international organisations, will participate. The meet will be hosted by Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh.
