Felids Interactions - Intraspecific Conflicts

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Sudeep Sunderban Travels

DEAD TIGER & MISSING TIGRESS RAISE QUESTIONS OVER KANHA RELOCATION.....
NAGPUR: Killing of a hand-reared tiger by another dominant male 'Kankatta' and the disappearance of a female in Kanha Tiger Reserve has once again raised doubts and debate among conservationists if hand-reared tigers should be released in the wild?
Kanha deputy director OP Tiwari confirmed it was two-and-half-year-old male tiger with multiple fractures and deep wounds on its limb. Excessive bleeding caused its death. "The collared alpha male died in a territorial fight on Wednesday," he said.
Tiwari said another collared beta female is missing and was last sighted by forest staff and locals on Maharashtra border. He admitted that radio collar of the beta has encountered problems and signals are not available.
The Kanha field director JS Chouhan has written to Pench (Maharashtra) field director MS Reddy to trace the female. "I have received the letter, but my staff has not seen a collared female. We will deploy camera traps and staff to trace the tigress," Reddy told TOI.
Forest officials had rescued three 3-month-old cubs — one male and two females — from the park after their mother died in September 2012. These cubs were first hand-reared in a small enclosure at Mukki for six months before being shifted in a 56 hectare enclosure at Ghodela.
Of the three, a male and a female were radio collared and released in Kanha's Kisli and Mukki zones, respectively, on October 23, 2013, when they were over two years. The park management made a big noise after 'successful' release of the tigers.
Experts involved in the process have termed it a managerial disaster. They questioned why were the tigers relocated in Kanha, that already has high density of tigers. According to official sources, there are 90 adult tigers and around 24 cubs. "Both the tigers were planned to be released in Panna but owing to internal politics they were later released in Kanha," a source said.
"Releasing orphaned cubs back in the wild is full of problems as captive animals get hand-reared and are not expert at finding their own food source. They can therefore turn into cattle lifters or man-eaters," said Abhay Kochar, working for corridor conservation between Balaghat-Kanha.
"The female moved out of the park after one month of its release and was last seen in Mukki on November 23, 2013. The male too used to frequent near villages after its release. It must have hardly remained inside for 15 days. Whenever the tiger moved near villages, staff used to push it inside the park with the help of elephants. Before getting killed in the fight, the tiger was pushed in Kankatta's territory," said sources involved in the operation.
Experts say when the satellite collar fitted to the tigers give signals every two hours, why forest officials failed to save the tiger. "They could have captured the tiger and save it," they said.
Tiwari said nothing can be authentically said about tiger behaviour. "Earlier, a similar experiment of Kanha tigers released in Panna was successful," he said.
source : toi, 15.03.2014.
pic: file picture.

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