Maha: Five tigresses to be shifted from Chandrapur to NNTR to improve male-female big cat ratio

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Four to five tigresses will be shifted from Chandrapur district to the Nawegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve here in the next 10 days and preparations for this translocation are in the final stages, a forest department official said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Mahep Gupta and Conservator of Forests and Field Director (NNTR) Jayarame Gowda R visited the area to review preparations, he said.

"In the first phase, two tigresses will be released. NNTR's core area is 656 square kilometres, while the buffer area is 1,200 square kilometres. It has the potential to host 20-25 tigers as per experts of the Wildlife Institute of India whereas the present population is 10," he said.

"Most importantly, the male to female ratio of tigers is poor in NNTR. We have five males and three females. In an ideal scenario, the number of females must be two times that of the males. This translocation from Chandrapur hopefully will set some of these aspects right," he added.

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Officiating Deputy Forest Officer Pradip Patil said the plan was to release tigresses with minimum human imprints and from "wild to wild" to avoid conflict situations, and favourable habitat and prey conditions are being set up.

Honorary Wildlife Warden Sawan Bahekar (Gondia) and Nadeem Khan (Bhandara) welcomed the move, though both said more work must be done for weed eradication in the reserve and improving water availability.

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