Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has asked the Madhya Pradesh government to take back the tigress Sundari, brought here as part of the first Inter-State Tiger Relocation ISTRprogramme of the the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
“We have written to the Madhya Pradesh government to take back the tigress in view of the NTCA’s directive,” said Odisha chief wildlife warden Hari Shankar Upadhay.
Last month the NTCA had suspending tiger translocation programme in Odisha’s Satkosia Tiger Reserve objecting to the tigress kept in a restricted open enclosure. The NTCA said that the tigress cannot be allowed to be kept in small enclosure.
Odisha has received the tigress from Bandhabgarh tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh as part of the Inter-State Translocation programme of NTCA in June 2019. However, the tigress had to be kept in enclosure as it alleged killed two villagers when it was released in the wild.
In a letter to the chief secretary of Odisha, the NTCA had said, in the interest of tiger conservation, the tigress shall be withdrawn and brought to Ghorela Centre at Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh with immediate effect for re- wilding and subsequent release to a suitable habitat.
A male tiger received earlier as part of the Inter-State Translocation of Tigers progamme was alleged killed inside the Satkosia Tiger Reserve.
