At present there is a rethinking in the wildlife wing of the state forest department on whether or not to go ahead with the National Tiger Conservation Authority approved plan to relocate two female tigers from Kanha Tiger Reserve to Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
The exercise to relocate two orphaned tigresses from Kanha Tiger Reserve to Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh was abandoned on December 5 after both the tigresses were injured in a fight just before they were to be tranquillised for a long road journey.
The forest authorities went in the overdrive mode to repopulate the Panna habitat with big cats after the last of the tigers was spotted in this territory in January 2009. At the outset, two female tigers were brought here — one from Bandhavgarh and another from Kanha. Later in November 2009, a male tiger was brought to Panna from the Pench Tiger Reserve. The implementation of the first phase of the relocation Plan has shown positive results as one of the Panna tigresses has two cubs that are now eight-months-old. The other tigress also has two cubs. They are about two-and-half-months-old. When the fitness of the two tigresses to be relocated from Kanha still remains to be certified, few senior state wildlife managers have started questioning the logic behind relocating these semi-wild tigresses into a habitat already occupied by two female tigers and their four cubs.
Currently there is a raging debate in state forest department on the issue of “rewilding” the two semi-wild Kanha tigresses. They were orphaned cubs initially brought up in a small enclosure which was later enlarged to cover an area of about 5 hectares. It is being pointed out that the two tigresses already there in Panna would be leaving their cubs to mark their territory when they go to hunt their prey. Everyone is apprehensive about what might happen if two big tigresses (five-and-half-years-old) are brought from Kanha and left in the same territory.
Another question being asked is whether any attention has been paid to the two different techniques of attacking prey by tigers because in Kanha spotted deer is the primary prey-base whereas in Panna it is Sambhar. Inbreeding is another issue being debated vigorously.
It is being said that security has to be fool-proof in the buffer zone of Panna to ensure the long term success of the tiger relocation plan.