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Pench tigress gets into fight with another


Even 15 days after the release of Pench tigress TF2, the radio-collared wildcat is yet to make its first independent kill, leaving forest officials and the monitoring team worried.

As feared by wildlife experts, the tigress also got into a fight with the resident tigress near Lamandoh on Sunday. The spot is around 2km from the enclosure where the tigress was held captive for three years. According to unconfirmed sources, the tigress is learnt to have been injured by the resident rival, but there was no confirmation from the wildlife wing officials.

"We are not aware about any such information, as we are still busy with the forest secretary's official tour of the region," said senior officials. Conservator of forests (CF) Sanjay Thawre, who is holding additional charge of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), and visited Pench on Sunday, was unavailable for comments.

The six-year-old tigress was soft-released on May 17 by opening the gate of the enclosure where it was in captivity for over three years in Tirthmangli area. However, even after eight days, the tigress had not killed any wild animal and was given a goat, which it killed and ate. With summer at its peak, the tigress is moving only near the river waters.

On May 24, the tigress had even returned to its enclosure but since the gate was closed, it walked back. Last week, head of forest force (HoFF) AK Saxena and chief wildlife warden Sarjan Bhagat too had visited Pench to review the progress.

Some members of the committee that decided on releasing the tigress had warned that even though this tigress was hunting on its own, it is generally observed that such releases lead to challenges for the tigers. Tigers brought up in captivity are not able to adjust to territorial fights with other wild tigers and move to areas near human habitation, which leads to man-animal conflict. However, this tigress has not moved towards human habitation until now.



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/...492953.cms

 

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