Sariska tiger couple at home, getting closer

There is a sigh of relief with satellite maps showing the relocated tiger and a tigress have adjusted to the new habitat in Sariska Tiger Reserve, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Aug 18, 2008, 01:15:13 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

There is a sigh of relief with satellite maps showing the relocated tiger and a tigress have adjusted to the new habitat in Sariska.

India is the first country among 14 tiger nations to relocate the big cat from one natural habitat to another. A tiger and a tigress were relocated from Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, also in Rajasthan, through an Indian Air Force helicopters to Sariska Tiger Reserve in the last week of June. Before releasing them into the wild, each animal was fitted with a radio collars worth $1,500 for ground level and satellite tracking to monitor their movement in the habitat.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NCTA) and the Rajasthan government received first satellite images of the animals on July 15, which showed that the animals were trying to adjust to the new habitat.

However, subsequent images obtained through Canada-based Argos satellite, which specialises in data collection of wild animals, clearly showed that the tiger and tigress were moving freely in their core critical areas. “The pattern of the data available through the satellite maps has helped us to understand the two animals were moving close to each other and would soon interact. This is a healthy indicator,” said Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of NCTA.

The satellite maps accessed by Hindustan Times till August 9 show that the male tiger is moving freely in the northern part of the tiger reserve close to Pandupole Temple, Slopka Chowki and Tehla Gate and off late has been moving towards eastern part of the part, where the tigress has been relocated. Similarly, the tigress is also moving northwards from her zone in central eastern part of the park.

Considering that the relocation had entire global wildlife fraternity watching first such experiment on tigers, the government decided to employ the globally acceptable Lotek radio collaring system based on global positioning system and VHF (radio frequency) tracking system. “We can monitor the animals both through satellite and radio frequency,” Gopal said.

Under the system, minimum two and maximum of six locations can be monitored at a given time. Following the success, the NCTA has decided to employ radio collaring in four other tiger reserves — Sunderbans, Pench, Kahna and Ranthamore. All these reserves had been in news in the recent years for being under constant threat of poachers.

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

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.