JAIPUR: The tigress released in the Seljar range of Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR) on April 11 is healthy and has made three kills, a senior Rajasthan wildlife official said on Monday after a barrage of criticism by former chief minister Vasundhara Raje questioning the government’s decision.
MHTR field director, Sedu Ram Yadav said the eight-year-old tigress (codenamed MT-4), who had been recuperating from an injury in September 2020, was released into the wild two days after being moved to an enclosure in Seljar two days earlier. “She is healthy and made three kills. The tigress is monitored 24x7,” Yadav said.
Yadav also underlined that the department was increasing the prey base in the Seljar range on the recommendation of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to 500 chittal “150 are being brought from the Ghana Bird Sanctuary and another 100 will come in a week or two,” said Yadav, adding that they will seek permission from NTCA to shift a male and female tigress to MHTR after the number of chittal rises.
Over the weekend, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje questioned the release of only a tigress in the Seljar forest in the northern part of the Mukundra Hills reserve.
{{/usCountry}}Over the weekend, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje questioned the release of only a tigress in the Seljar forest in the northern part of the Mukundra Hills reserve.
{{/usCountry}}Two tigers and two cubs died in July-August 2020, and a tiger, MT-1, went missing after authorities populated the reserve forest in 2018. The tigress, MT-4, was the only one to survive.
Raje’s criticism was primarily centered around releasing the tigress in the Seljar range, not the Darrah range of MHTR as was decided by her government in 2018 when she was chief minister.
“The reason Seljar was not considered for tiger relocation in MHTR (in 2018) was the high biotic pressure, cattle herds and overall lack of security. It is strange that the same officials who discounted Seljar not too long ago have now let the tigress go free there…. If anything happens to tigress, MT-4, the responsibility will squarely lie at the doorstep of the Rajasthan government,” she said in a string of tweets.
A senior forest official familiar development said it was the NTCA which supported release of the tigress in Seljar range and not Darrah. “Leaving one, all the big cats, which were released in Darrah (earlier), are dead or missing. This shows that the experiment failed,” said the official.
The official said tigers could not be kept in enclosures or zoos to ensure their security and are free to move, irrespective of where they are released.
In February, NTCA’s technical committee, which came up with a bunch of recommendations to strengthen the habitat for the tigers late last year, okayed a plan to relocate tigers to MHTR.