Wildlife dept begins ‘individual monitoring’ of tigers in MHTR

After the death of two tigers in Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR) recently, the wildlife department has started “individual monitoring” of the remaining two tigers in the park.

The department has also carried out health audit of the two tigers and found them to be healthy, officials said.

“We have decided to conduct day-night individual monitoring of the two tigers present in MHTR,” said Sedu Ram Yadav, chief conservator of forest, MHTR, Kota.

“We have already started day time individual monitoring of the two tigers by a two-member team for each of them,” he said, adding that an assistant conservator of forest and two forest rangers have been entrusted with the responsibility of individual monitoring of the tigers.

Yadav said tiger monitoring was being done earlier also, but now it would be done in more dedicated manner.

Yadav said health audit of both the tigers -- Tiger MT-1 and Tigress MT-4 -- has been carried out, in which both the tigers have been found healthy.

Dr Arvind Mathur of Jaipur carried out the health audit in presence of wildlife officials. “No injury has been detected in both the tigers,” he said.

He said antibiotic injection shots were given to both the tigers from a distance without tranquilizing them to keep them safe from diseases.

Meanwhile, the wildlife department has also got new radio collars for the two tigers as their radio collars were not working.

A member of the MHTR’s local advisory committee, Nikhilesh Sethi said that MHTR is congenial for tiger relocation so more tigers should be relocated in the park. “Issues of staff crunch, village relocation and tiger conservation should also be dealt on priority basis,” he said.