By IANS,
Bhopal : A tigress was shifted from Bandhavgarh to the Panna tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh by road Wednesday after the authorities failed to get an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter, an official said.
“The decision to send the four-year-old big cat by road was taken due to the delay in receiving a chopper from the IAF,” Additional Principal Chief Conservator Forest (Wildlife) H.S. Pabla said.
“The arrival of the chopper was taking a bit long. Panna is at a little distance from Bandhavgarh, so we decided to transport the tigress by road,” he said.
Pabla said the animal was monitored for a few weeks and tranquilised Tuesday evening before being put into a cage. He said the entire shifting operation went off smoothly.
Added Principal Chief Conservator of Forests P.B. Gangopadhyaya added: “The wild cat has been translocated successfully. She is hale and hearty.”
The animals in the Panna reserve – spread over 545 sq km and an additional landscape of 200 sq km in Chhattarpur and Panna districts – had become a haunt of bandits active in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
“An enclosure has been readied in the Panna reserve for the tigress. Six close circuit cameras have been installed there and a control room has been set up to keep an eye on the tigress,” Panna Tiger Reserve Director Lalan Kumar Choudhary told IANS over telephone.