New Delhi, July 19
In what comes as welcome news, a big cat and its mate, who were flown to Sariska Tiger Reserve in the first-of-its-kind tiger relocation programme in the world, are doing well and appear to have settled down.
Sariska, which was poached off all its tigers four years back, received the first male tiger on June 28 and within a week a tigress was flown in from Ranthambore National Park. The reserve is now all set to receive a third inmate-a second tigress, which is likely to be airlifted from Ranthambhore by the end of July. Two more big cats, one of them a tigress, are expected in Sariska over the next two years.
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehra Dun, scientists and the wildlife department staff at the park are monitoring the two big cats closely. The relocated tiger and tigress have marked their territories. Although the area they are moving in is overlapping, the duo appears to have not made any contact with each other. However, it is also likely that the tigress may already be pregnant.
WII director P.R. Sinha said: “Both are doing fine. Earlier it was expected that homing instinct might force them to head back home, but they seem to have overcome it. They have been making natural kills and yesterday the tigress killed a sambhar.”
