Panna to get two Kanha tiger princesses in December

BHOPAL: Come December and two tiger princesses will make a 450 km journey from Madhya Pradesh's Kanha National Park to their new home in the picturesque Panna forests as part of a plan to boost the big cat's numbers there, said officials.

The tigresses, one four years old and the other five-and-a-half, will be put in two cages after they are tranquilised on the day of their journey Dec 5 and then transported in trucks to Panna National Park.

"Dec 5 has been fixed to bring two tigresses. According to their health they would be kept in special areas within the Panna reserve," VS Parihar, deputy director of Panna Tiger Reserve, said.

A team of veterinarians and forest officials will accompany the big cats and the translocation will be completed in about 10 hours, said officials.

Spread across more than 500 sq km, the Panna National Park has already made its preparations to welcome the Kanha princesses. Two veterinarians have already been appointed to monitor the big cats' health in Panna.

The Kanha and Panna national parks are two of the six tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh. The 1,945 sq km Kanha park was set up in 1955. According to a census in 2006, Kanha had about 90-130 tigers.

Panna, created in 1981, currently has three adult tigers and two cubs. A tigress, which had been earlier translocated from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, also in Madhya Pradesh, to Panna, has mated and given birth to four cubs there in March this year. Unfortunately, two cubs went missing and are feared dead.

Now two more are set to join them in Panna.

"A close vigil is being kept on the health of the tigresses and the preparation to shift them is almost complete," said S.K. Mohanty, deputy director of Kanha National Park.

Three other tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh are Pench, Satpura and Sanjay Dhubri.

The forest department has recently initiated a process in Panna to relocate some 16 villages around the reserve.

Srinivas Murthy, field director of Panna Tiger Reserve, said: "So far 13 (villages) are under process of relocation.

"We will try to relocate the rest of the villages soon. Barring the 2006 incident in which villagers had given poison to the animals, no such conflict has been evident."

In 2008, a tiger census report revealed that India had just about 1,400 tigers. The results of a new census launched countrywide in January are awaited.