Tigers of Ranthambore & Western India Landscape

[Sanju]

Tiger fitted with radio collar released in Mukundra Hills

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MHTR was finally tranquillised and collared by the forest department


A young sub-adult T-98 tiger that strayed from the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR) to Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR) was finally tranquillised and collared by the forest department on Saturday.

The tiger was released in Mashanpura forest range where the big cat made its new home for past several days. A forest official at MHTR said, “The tiger was tranquillised around 6.12 am in the morning. After installing the radio collar, the tiger was released in Mashanpura region. We have deployed teams to monitor the tiger round the clock,” he said.

The forest department was making several attempts to tranquillise and release it in Darah range of MHTR after the decision was taken by the committee on February 21. “Due to dense forest and gorges, the tiger was not sighted for past so many days. The movement of the tiger was recorded after installing camera traps and witnessing its pug marks.

Today, we successfully managed to tranquillise the animal,” said an officer. Earlier, the decision to collar the tiger was taken by the committee constituted to deal with emergency situation due to straying of big cat T-98 near human settlement. After the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) experts visited the area where the tiger strayed, they suggested to collar the tiger immediately.

The forest administration officials were earlier willing to release the tiger in Seljar range of MHTR after tranquillising. However, the proposal was turned down by the experts. “We have decided to release the tiger outside the 82 sq km enclosure, where two big cats were recently relocated. Our tracking team will be on job and tiger monitoring will be done extensively,” he said.

In past, the tiger movement is constantly recorded near the Ghati village. The tiger was repeatedly straying into human settlements or is responsible for attacks on humans or livestock, then the forest authorities have been advised to trap the animal as per standard procedures. Reply