Baripada (Odisha), Nov 9 (PTI) The authorities of the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) on Saturday released 'Jamuna' – the Royal Bengal Tigress - brought from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra, into the wild from its soft enclosure here.
As of now, the tigress has settled down in the core area of the STR, a senior official said, adding that the Jamuna was being regularly monitored through our trained monitoring team.
Taking to X, Odisha's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Susanta Nanda, shared some pictures and video of the tigress being released into the wild. "For the first time we have a tiger supplementation anywhere in the world to enhance the gene pool of tigers", he said wishing success of the programme.
The two-and-a-half-year-old tigress, named Jamuna, was kept in a soft enclosure in the STR since it was brought from Maharastra on October 27. The wild cat was brought to STR under a translocation project to curb inbreeding and improve the gene pool of tigers inside the reserve, where 50 per cent are melanistic.
Meanwhile, the wildlife wing of the Forest Department has also reached the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to bring another tigress.
At present, Odisha has 30 tigers, of which 27 tigers are found in STR. Though STR has a unique population of melanistic tigers, in-breeding among the closed population has emerged as a looming threat to striped predators in the protected area. So the authority has decided to bring tigers from Maharashtra, they said.
Earlier, the state's effort to translocation of tiger from Madhya Pradesh "failed" due to protests by villagers living on the fringes of Satkosia Tiger Reserve, where one male tiger 'Mahavir' and a tigress 'Sundari' from Kanha Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh respectively were introduced in 2018.
While Mahavir was found dead, Sundari was sent back to its original habitat in 2021 after it allegedly killed two persons.