Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A team of forest officials from Rajasthan is in Pench Tiger Reserve to capture a tigress for translocation. However, it has failed to tranquilize the big cat so far.
Rajasthan is getting three tigresses from Madhya Pradesh as part of the first inter-state translocation.
Overall, 11 big cats are to be translocated to three states, including Rajasthan, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Interacting with the Free Press, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) L Krishna Murthy said that the Rajasthan forest department team was in Pench to get a tigress, while talks were underway with the other two states.
In the meantime, Pench Tiger Reserve officials said that joint teams of Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (Rajathan) and Pench started searching for the identified big cat from 6 AM onwards. All the camera traps were checked to trace the movement of the tigress.
The photo captured by one of the camera traps confirmed the fresh movement of the tigress and based on the input, search operation with the help of elephant and patrolling team was launched. At 7 AM, the tigress was spotted resting amidst lantana shrubs. As its location was close to a pond, darting was not possible, because in a subconscious state it could fall in the water body.
The forest officials waited for it to move to some other safer place. However, the tigress seemed to have sensed the situation and moved away with lightning speed. It could not be darted at that time.
Later, at around 1 PM a fresh location of the tigress was detected with the help of a camera trap. Once again, search operation was launched but till the evening, the big cat could not be traced. Now the search operation will be launched on Monday to dart the tigress.
