After inordinate delay to take a decission to rehabilitate the translocated furious tigress "Sundari " at the Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Angul district, a three-member team of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) visited and reviewed about the proper habitation of the tigress on Tuesday.
‘Sundari’ who mauled two people to death last year has been confined in an enclosed forest area at Raigoda . The team comprising former Field Director of Kanha Tiger Reserve Dr Khageswar Nayak, Assistant Inspector General of Forests, NTCA KH Bhaskar and Deputy Director, NTCA VK Sharma has reviewed the proposal to increase the enclosed area to 25 hectares.The team also reviewed the tiger prey area .
Earlier, the NTCA had expressed strong displeasure over poaching and confinement of two tigers , Mahabir and Sundari who were translocated from Madhya Pradesh to Satkosia Tiger Reserve
Mahabir that was shifted from Kanha National Park fell victim to poachers’ snare and was killed and Sundari, that was translocated from Bandhavgarh, has been kept in a solitary confinement despite NTC advisories. These tigers were shifted under tiger augmentation project considering potential, connectivity and history of STR.
Earlier, NTCA IG had visited Satkosia Tiger Reserve on November 16 and 17 last
year.
The NTCA has reiterated time and again to ensure adequate preparedness in field, habitat enrichment, community engagement, capacity-building, equipment to avoid and address any kind of conflict.
The NTCA had also reported that Sundari has been put through tremendous stress/trauma and needs to be conditioned before it is fit for release into the wild. The ‘rehabilitation enclosure holding the tigress needs adequate wilderness enrichment and modification. Tiger augmentation process will have to remain in abeyance before multiple issues flagged are sorted out, the NTCA report had said.
Capacity building of staff, community engagement, relocation of villages, prey augmentation and distribution assessment, vet care and capacity, real time monitoring, elephant squad, RRT, STF need to be seriously functional in desired manner, before an attempt to restart tiger augmentation process, presently kept in abeyance, the report had suggested.
n view of the earlier report of the NTCA, the visiting team has discussed in detail on the matters with the concerned officials of the State Government.
Meanwhile, the Citizens’ Action Forum, in a letter to the Chief Minister urged to take immediate action against those officials responsible for the disaster of the Tiger Project.
