Jaipur: A statue of tigress ST-2 will soon be installed in Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) of Rajasthan. ST-2, named as Rajmata by the STR administration, was the tigress who played a key role in repopulating the reserve which had become tigerless due to poaching.
Tiger ST-1 and tigress ST-2 were relocated to STR in 2008 to repopulate it. Since then, the number of tigers has reached up to 42 in the park.
About ten years ago, the Sariska administration had given the status of Rajmata to the tigress ST-2. The tigress died a year ago and its statue will be installed in Sariska by the end of this March.
DFO Abhimanyu Saharan said that the white marble statue will cost around Rs seven lakhs and will pose like roaming in forest. Notably, Sariska got deserted in 2005 due to poaching. After this, on July 4, 2008, ST-1 and ST-2 were brought to Sariska from Ranthambore.
At that time, tigress ST-2 was two years old. After her arrival, the big cat family started growing in Sariska. At present, there are 42 tigers and tigresses in Sariska. Out of these, 18 belong to the family of tigress ST-2. ST-2 died on January 9, 2024, due to infection at the age of 19.
