Tigers of Ranthambore & Western India Landscape

[Rishi]

Sariska repopulation programme is in deep sh!t... has always been, truth be told. 
Opposite of Panna TR, it's going to be a casestudy of what not to do during tiger relocation. Not only the man-animal conflict problem still remains, the first three tigers sent from already inbred Ranthambore stock were step-siblings, then followed by first cousins!

With the first male quickly dying & on top of more recent unnatural deaths, further misfortunes fell as ST-4 was killed by ST-6 & his replacement ST-16 (Ranthambore's T-75) soon followed him earlier this month in a complex controversy of septicemia, heatstroke & ostensible tranquilizer overdose. 
(You'll find in previous posts that he was too small & light for a 7-year-old, no more than 180kg. A "standard dose" for a 220kg male could kill him.)

That again leaves ST-6 as the only ruling male in Sariska (only less than 300km² of the 850km² reserve is tiger habitated) against 8 tigresses. Already all the dozen-odd cubs were fathered by him... Under the original tiger reintroduction program of National Tiger Conservation Authority started in 2008, around 20 tigers were to be reintroduced in Sariska Tiger Reserve. There's been 9 sent until now, with half of them dead, mostly males.

*This image is copyright of its original author

There's also an allegation, soething everybody suspects but nobody knows, is that powerful business lobbies don't want Sariska to stand up to Ranthambore. The deliberate neglect by successive governments have been too evident. Atleast the geniuses have at last had the clue to call in NTCA for review & overseeing.

The breeding problem is another mystery! They took a decade to settle down & finally started breeding.
Multiple tigresses relocated to STR did not even have any litters and are assumed to infertile, but they breed like rats in Ranthambore, even in the human-dominated fringe areas.
Rajasthan now plans to bring 2-3 cats from Madhya Pradesh for unsafe Sariska in order to avoid inbreeding... Another folly. Even the needs of a "tiger reserve" status for this isolated, fragmented forest was questioned recently. At this point they might as well ditch it & concentrate on creating the new Mukundara Hills genepool that actually has a future. The new viable population could use those MP tigers' genes, so could Ranthambore buffers like Kailadevi Sanctuary. Ranthambore NP has enough surplus cats for exchange, that'll benefit MP tigers' genes as well.

Associate professor at National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, Uma Ramakrishnan, who studied genomes of tigers at RTR said:

Quote:We have sequenced and studied genomes of Ranthambore tigers. Our analyses suggest RTR tigers are isolated, have low genetic variation, are related to each other, and inbred. Inbreeding depression is when inbred tigers have a lower chance of survival. We (and others) do not see telltale signs of inbreeding depression yet. Further research in the coming years is needed to investigate this.

Right now, Sariska tigers are only good for one thing, capture & exchange with MP. Reply