Just 2 big cats can be shifted to Sariska park

After Madhya Pradesh government refused to relocate tigers for Sariska, a government institute has zeroed down two tigers that can be shifted from Ranthambore to Sariska.

Updated on: Jul 20, 2010, 24:16:13 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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After Madhya Pradesh government refused to relocate tigers for Sariska, a government institute has zeroed down two tigers that can be shifted from Ranthambore to Sariska.

The Rajasthan Forest Department was keen to relocate two more tiger couples from Ranthambore to Sariska, where the big cats went missing in 2004. But, genetic similarity between tigers in Ranthambore was considered the biggest stumbling block.

The three tigers — a male and two females —were transferred from Ranthambore to Sariska about two years ago but because of reports of genetic incompatibility among them, they had failed to breed.

This time, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was keen to find out the level of genetic similarity between the tigers in Ranthambore and Sariska and asked the Bangalore-based National Centre for Biological Sciences to conduct DNA tests.

After DNA tests of eight tigers from Ranthambore tiger reserve, the Centre suggested translocation of only two tigers with “lowest relatedness” with three relocated tigers in Sariska.

“The tigers from Sawai Madhopur range in Ranthambore are the two individuals best suited for relocation,” the NTCA told the environment ministry. The relocation can take place only after the ministry’s approval.

The institute, in its report to NCTA, found that six other tigers had high degree of relatedness with big cats in Sariska and said it would not be ideal to introduce them in Sariska.

Valmik Thapar, member of Tiger Task Force said the government should ensure that the tigers for relocation from Ranthambore should not be selected from core areas.

“The animal for relocation should be selected from fringe areas with the help of local people,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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