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Maharashtra tiger, which travelled 510km and killed two, captured in Madhya Pradesh

Vijay Pinjarkar| TNN | Updated: Dec 12, 2018, 13:36 IST

*This image is copyright of its original author

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*This image is copyright of its original author

The tiger was caught after it entered the Satpura Power Station in Sarni, Madhya Pradesh, leading to a scare
NAGPUR: The four-month-long walkathon of the over 2-year-old tiger ended on Monday. It had started its dispersal journey around August 15 from the Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station. The younger tiger finally had to be caught after creating a scare on entering the Satpura Power Station in Sarni (Madhya Pradesh). In four months, it had travelled 510 kms making this, according to experts, the longest recorded (see box) dispersal of a tiger in the country.
As reported by TOI, the tiger had almost reached Satpura Tiger Reserve in Hoshangabad district (MP) after travelling 470km on November 22. However, it did not enter the reserve and instead moved 40 kms towards Sarni.

“The tiger was first seen near the fly ash pond and marshy area on December 1. Then, power station colony residents spotted it strolling on the road at night and moving close to human settlements. It caused a panic,” says Rakhi Nanda, divisional forest officer (DFO), Sarni.

On its way in finding territory, the tiger had killed two farmers in Amravati district. The first attack took place in Mangrul Dastagir on October 19 in Dhamangaon Railway and second after four days in Anjansingi on October 22. “The tiger mostly preyed on cattle while moving close to human settlements. Hence, we decided to capture the carnivore,” said Nanda.

Chandrapur forest officials are unaware of the capture. Chief conservator of forest (CCF) SV Ramarao said, “I’ve no communication whether the captured tiger is the same as the that grew up in Chandrapur power station.”

However, Nanda said that the forest officials matched the stripe pattern of the tiger from South Betul division and also studied its behaviour from available data and pictures. “The tiger had spent 25 days in Betul. The one we have captured in Sarni is the same,” she said.


It is learnt that the tiger was moving in an area passing through high tension power lines and ash pond. “Grass as tall as an elephant was predominant there. We started the operation with four elephants at 5am and could capture the tiger at 3pm near the ash pond,” said SK Singh, field director of Satpura Tiger Reserve.




For 10 days after it was first sighted in the Sarni power plant, the forest department monitored the tiger’s movements. “We thought it would continue its walk but perhaps it found the habitat here conducive as it had grown up in another power plant,” Singh added.


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DO NOT KILL the tigerTvkon


Satpura tiger reserve is spread over 2,100 sqkm including 1,500 sqkm core and 700 sqkm buffer. “There are 40 tigers in this undulating terrain which includes the popular Pachmarhi hills. There was ample scope for a new entrant tiger but it chose to stay put at the Sarni plant,” said Singh.




MP chief wildlife warden Shahbaz Ahmad informed that the tiger has been shifted to an enclosure in Kanha. “The options to rehabilitate the tiger is always there. A decision will be taken after watching its behaviour,” he said.


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