29 October,2020 07:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Ranjeet Jadhav
The Maharashtra Forest Department on Tuesday captured RT1 which was suspected of killing eight people
If everything goes according to plan, soon the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) will have two more tigers. The Principal Chief Conservator Of Forest (PCCF) recently passed an order to give a tigress to SGNP, and there are also talks that the tiger RT1 that was trapped from Chandrapur on Tuesday, would be sent to SGNP. The Maharashtra Forest Department on Tuesday captured RT1 which was suspected of killing eight people in Chandrapur.
Talking to mid-day PCCF M K Rao said, "Our teams have been successful in trapping the tiger RT1 near Sindhi village in Rajura forest in Central Chanda in Chandrapur district on Tuesday. The tiger has been taken to the Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. It was suspected of killing eight people and injuring three others in human-animal conflict incidents since January 2019. We have also given the go ahead to transfer a captive tigress to SGNP-Mumbai and in coming days, a team from SGNP will come to Nagpur to take her."
Another senior Forest Department official said, "RT1 trapped from Chandrapur has been taken to Gorewada zoo in Nagpur, and we will try to get it to SGNP in coming months so that the population of the captive tigers there can be increased".
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A tigress will also be added to SGNP. Representation pic/Bipin Kokate
The captive tiger and lion safari at SGNP was started in the 1990s and since then it has been one of the important tourist attractions. But with the animals either dying of old age or illnesses, the authorities are concerned.
There are a total of four tigresses and one tiger at SGNP. Of these, three are between eight to 10-years-old, one is 18-years-old and the tiger, Sultan, is younger. They all are very dominant and don't let him come close. A couple of months back, SGNP had written to Gorewada zoo demanding a tiger. Tiger (Cl) named Sultan was transferred from Gorewada Rescue Centre to SGNP on December 26, 2019. It was brought to mate with the four tigresses - Bijlee, 9, Mastani, 9, Basanti, 18, and Laxmi, 10. The breeding programme was expected to begin once Sultan settled down, but according to the sources, there has not been much progress. Sultan was at Gorewada Zoo run by Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) and he is the cub of tigress T1 from Brahmapuri Forest Division.
5
No. of total tigers currently at the SGNP
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