12345 Kolkata/Purulia/Jhargram: The dispersing Odisha tigress has added another location to its travel map — two weeks after it left its home in Simlipal Tiger Reserve. From Jhargram's Belpahari range, it has shifted to Purulia's Bandwan (30-40 km aerial distance) early on Sunday morning, giving the district its first confirmed tiger record in the recent past.
After going without signals for over eight hours on Saturday, its radio collar started emitting signals late on Saturday night, and early on Sunday it was located on a hilly terrain in Bandwan.
However, the signals ceased functioning after 11.30 am on Sunday as undulated, hilly terrains presented tracking challenges to the forest teams. "Satellite reception is relatively poor due to dense forest cover and undulated landscape," said chief conservator of forest S Kulandaivel.
Late on Sunday afternoon, intermittent collar signals indicated that it was in Bandwan's Raika.
Since entering Bengal on Friday morning, it has traversed more than 50 km thus far, Kulandaivel added. Six forest teams, including two from Bengal's Sundarbans and Jhargram and the rest from Odisha, were monitoring it till Sunday morning, he said.
Purulia (main) divisional forest officer Anjan Guha said they deployed three more teams and kept five on stand-by. "Teams from Bandwan I, Jamuna, Manbazar II have been dispatched to the location," a source said.
According to sources, signals were detected around 6 am at Bandwan and subsequently around 11.30 am in a hilly terrain of the same range. "There were no signals thereafter as we surmised that the big cat was somewhere in a shadow zone where communication is poor. Late in the afternoon, the collar started transmitting signals for a brief period," another source added.
Bengal's chief wildlife warden Debal Roy told TOI on Sunday afternoon: "There is no signal." His counterpart in Odisha, Prem Kumar Jha, said: "Our strategy remains unchanged. As soon as we get a favourable situation, we will tranquillise it."
Professor, Wildlife Institute of India, Qamar Qureshi, said the authorities should immediately capture and bring it back to Simlipal. "They should have done that the moment it dispersed out of Simlipal. They should then identify areas within the tiger reserve with low big cat density and good prey base and release it back there," he added.
Asked if a tigress wandering so far is unusual, Qureshi said though these traits are more prevalent in males, females, too, can wander in search of territory. "It's a young tigress released in a new territory. Like humans take time to get familiar with a new environment, the same is the case with tigers. It's also possible that it has been pushed out by tigers that already have an established territory in Simlipal North. Tigers are explorers. There are numerous reasons for them to do so, including mates, prey and territory. They will travel in search of them and can even retreat back to its original habitat if they fail to find a suitable one outside," added Qureshi.
According to Guha, the landscape in Purulia where the big cat has ventured into has a substantial density of wild boar. "Besides, the place also has Indian hares. The landscape already houses carnivores such as hyenas and wolves. So, prey base-wise this is a favourable habitat," he added.
According to him, since human habitations are not located nearby, there's no need to panic. "We are coordinating with the civil administration, including the SP, local BDO and cops," he added.
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