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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sariska may get fifth tiger tomorrow

JAIPUR: In all likelihood, Sariska would get its fifth tiger from Ranthambore on Friday. This time it would be a female.

Though officials refused to confirm the exact date but indicated a probability. "This time the tigers that have been identified for relocation to Sariska have not been radio collared unlike the previous three instances. These tigers have been identified after a DNA test of their scat samples," officials said.

"Therefore, it cannot be said beforehand we would definitely be able to locate the particular tiger on an exact date. We are trying for the relocation on Friday. When tigers are radio collared t is easy to locate them, else it is a mere chance that one takes in the forest," he said adding the radio collars were put on the tiger only after being brought to Sariska.

In fact, it was something like this that happened with the male T-12 tiger that was relocated to Sariska on Wednesday. Officials said the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) team had arrived at Ranthambore on Tuesday evening. The next morning when the team, along with director of the park RS Shekhawat, went to track the tiger it was coincidentally spotted at an ideal spot.

"Often we are able to locate the tiger but it becomes difficult to tranquillise it as the dart has to be carefully shot only on its hind legs, else one may injure it. On Wednesday, all things fell into shape and it was decided instantly to relocate the tiger," said RN Mehrotra, chief wildlife warden, Rajasthan.

Officials said the tracking team came within 10 metres of the tiger. "The T-12 tiger was our first choice for relocation and on Wednesday. We were lucky when we went for tracking to find it standing near its kill. It was then that the decision for relocation by the road route was taken," officials said.

With the fourth relocation, that comes after about two years since the last one, Sariska now has two males and two female cats with a third female hoping to find its way this week itself.

Officials say the relocated tiger is doing well in the temporary enclosure in Sariska. "It has adapted well and is behaving normally. The cat ate the bait this morning," officials said.

While all looks well for the forest officials, the silence of the tourism lobby has taken many by surprise. "Maybe they did not get the time to react. It happened all too suddenly for them to evoke any response," sources said.

164 tigers sighted in MP national parks in a year

Bhopal: Nearly 164 tigers were sighted by the ground duty officials equipped with Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in the national parks of Madhya Pradesh from July 6, 2009 to July 9 this year, a top official said.

"The ground officials keeping a vigil on the wild animals have sighted 164 tigers in national parks from July 6, 2009 to July 9, 2010," Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (IT) Anil Oberoi told a news agency.
He did not rule out of the possibly that the patrol parties might had sighted the same tiger twice or thrice.

Oberoi said that around 1714 evidential sighting of tigers had been recorded in the national parks from July 6, 2009 to July 9, 2010.

About the huge number of evidential sighting, he said that the patrol parties might had got evidences of the same striped animal more than once during their different patrolling.

He said that in the evidential sighting tiger's pug mark, scratch, sound, kill, urine and dung are relied upon.