JAIPUR: Like the elusive monsoon, the tiger relocation too may miss its date with Sariska.
Sources at the Ranthambore national park informed that the park has not started any preparations to relocate the tigers to Sariska around July 18. The fresh date was announced by Rajesh Gopal, director, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) after it failed to relocate the tigers on two previous dates-- July 4 and July 11.
Officials of the state forest department and NTCA reasoned the constant change in dates has been due to the elusive monsoon in the state. "We want some rain which would make the weather more conducive for shifting," Gopal had told TOI earlier and put July 18 as the next possible date.
"A whole lot of preparations have to be done before the tigers are relocated. Special teams have to formed and the tigers are closely monitored. Even the Indian Air Force has to be informed about the requirement of a helicopter. Nothing of such kind has happened till now. Therefore, it is not possible to relocate any tiger on Sunday," the source added.
The sudden halt of the relocation programme has been attributed to the rising pressure from the tourism lobby at Ranthambore that is against removing any tiger from the forest fearing it may hit the tourism in the area.
Earlier in-breeding was cited as one of the reasons for putting a brake on the programme. Recently, the tourism lobby had filed a petition at a local court in Sawai Madhopur to prevent the relocation stating it would hit the sector. It however, failed to provide them respite.
"There is little else that explains the halting of the programme. To quell the fear of inbreeding, the NTCA had carried out the DNA tests of the probable tigers to be relocated. Even the results of the scat samples have arrived. So why stop the relocation," they asked.
