A tiger from Ranthambore tiger reserve in Rajasthan, who has been roaming around in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur forest for the past two months, has entered Kuno National Park (KNP), a forest official said on Monday.
The male tiger named T-136 has been trying to make its territory in areas near the Chambal river in the Sheopur district since November 2022 and entered Kuno on Sunday, said the official, adding that around half a dozen tigers from Ranthambore have entered Kuno in the past eight years as the latter falls in the green corridor connecting the two wildlife habitats.
“The pug marks were seen in the buffer area of KNP near Khadi Shyampur. He (T-136) was also seen by patrolling teams. Now, forest teams are tracing the movement of three cheetahs closely because we don’t know where the tigers will move,” said a forest official at KNP, requesting anonymity.
Also Read: Odisha: Rare melanistic tiger found dead in Similipal; officials suspect infighting
The official said it was the same tiger which attacked two journalists in Jaura Tehsil of Morena district in November 2022. Later, he moved towards Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan. In March this year, he was spotted in Pohari village bordering Shivpuri and Sheopur districts. Pohari is 25 km from the Palpur range of KNP, where cheetahs are kept in an enclosure.
{{/usCountry}}The official said it was the same tiger which attacked two journalists in Jaura Tehsil of Morena district in November 2022. Later, he moved towards Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan. In March this year, he was spotted in Pohari village bordering Shivpuri and Sheopur districts. Pohari is 25 km from the Palpur range of KNP, where cheetahs are kept in an enclosure.
{{/usCountry}}MP chief wildlife warden JS Chouhan said, “The movement of tigers from Ranthambore is not unusual as they have come to Kuno earlier. We have not been able to trace the tiger but cheetahs are under vigilance and are safe.”
KNP field director Uttam Sharma ruled out any danger for cheetahs saying that interaction between them is “rare.”
“In April, when Pawan (earlier named Oban) had entered the territory of three tigers in Madhav National Park, he sensed the risk and changed his direction. Cheetahs know how to protect themselves from big cats. In Kuno, cheetahs have been living with leopards for months now,” Sharma added.
Also Read: Inadequate space for cheetahs in Kuno National Park, claims ex-WII official
According to big cats experts, there is no easy answer to the possibility of interaction between a cheetah and a tiger.
“KNP saw the movement of male tigers many times but they never made its territory. Cheetahs live mostly in open land with lions and hyenas but a tiger will be new for them. In an open land, a cheetah can sense the presence of risk but in a thick forest, a tiger, which is an ambush hunter, will have an upper hand,” said Anish Andheria, CEO, Wildlife Conservation Trust.
As of now, KNP has three cheetahs in the wild and 19 kept in a six-square-km enclosure which were imported from Namibia and South Africa. Two cheetahs namely Sasha and Uday died because at Kuno in the past two months suffering from ailment.
Before cheetahs were brought to Kuno, Ravi Chellam, CEO, Metastring Foundation, raised the question of what will happen to cheetahs if tigers from Ranthambore reach Kuno. “There will be a conflict and I don’t think there is a plan to manage it,” he had said.
A senior Madhya Pradesh forest official aware of the development said they were monitoring the situation closely and if the tiger poses a challenge to cheetahs in the wild, it may be tranquilised. “Our past experience shows that tigers from Ranthambore return to their habitat and not even a single has made Kuno their home,” he said.
Ranthambore is the third most congested tiger reserve in the country after Corbett in Uttarakhand and Kaziranga in Assam. As per the Rajasthan government estimation, the reserve has 81 tigers, an increase of 18 in two years.
The state government has notified Mukundara Hills as a tiger reserve to accommodate excess tigers from Ranthambore. It has also proposed to declare Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve for Ranthambore tigers.