One of the two orphaned tigresses of Ranthambore national park was relocated to Sariska on Tuesday. Given the unusual name of Bina 1, after the Rajasthan forest and tourism minister Bina Kak, her presence in the Sariska national park will give a boost to the tiger relocation work being done by the environment ministry bringing the number of big cats to five along with two cubs in this reserve.
Bina 1’s sibling, Bina 2 is expected to be relocated to Sariska in the next few days.
Both these siblings lost their mother at a young age and in a rare display of parenting, were brought up by their “father”. Male tigers are not know to protect their offspring but in this unusual case, these motherless cubs were protected by a male tiger named T 25 suspected of being their father.
The behaviour of T 25 was recorded by secret cameras fitted in the Ranthambore reserve.
Tiger expert P.K. Sen points out, “In the history of tiger conservation, we have not known of cubs being brought up by a male tiger but this precedent was set in Ranthambore. Unfortunately, both these cubs were straying much too close to human habitation and were killing cattle. Rather than allowing harm to come to them, it was a smart move to relocate them to Sariska.