Is tiger Srinivas following in dad Jai's paw prints?

Srinivas was fitted with a hi-tech radio collar on December 5, 2016 Pic/Sarosh Lodhi

It's been five days now that the radio collar of sub-adult tiger Srinivas was found in Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary, located 58 km from Nagpur, but the authorities continue to be clueless of his whereabouts. Srinivas is the son of radio-collared tiger Jai, who had gone missing last year.

Also read: Missing tiger Jai still a mystery for forest department

The forest department has started an intense search operation to find the animal, but the camera traps installed in the area have not yet been able to capture any image of the missing tiger.

mid-day had reported on July 29, 2016, how cub Srinivas had been missing for nearly two weeks. Later, the authorities had received signal from his collar near Sindewahi in Chandrapur district.

Collar crime?
Srinivas and his brother Bittu are two sub-adult tigers aged around two years. In order to study their movement, both were fitted with radio collars, but while tracking them, researchers realised that the collars' batteries had drained; so, both were tranquilised and their collars changed - Srinivas's on December 5 last year and Bittu's on January 13 this year. More than '5 lakh were spent on the new hi-tech collars to ensure that they last long.

Also read: Team of three to probe missing tiger Jai's case

Now, with Srinivas going missing in just four months since the change, wildlife photographers and animal activists have raised questions over the quality of the collars. Some have voiced the apprehension that there are chances that the tiger may have been poached.

Sarosh Lodhi from Conservation Lenses and Wildlife, an independent group of wildlife lovers and photographers, said, "It's worrying to learn that the tiger's images have not been captured in spite of the camera traps. I hope this isn't a repeat of Jai's story."

On the tiger's trail
"We are doing our best to track the tiger, and we are confident that we will get his picture soon," said a forest department official. Experts said Srinivas used to roam between Paoni and Brahmapuri, a stretch with many fields as well as human habitation, and hence, it is not possible that no one has seen a collared tiger in the last four days.

Also read: Maharashtra seeks video footage from Telangana to trace missing tiger 'Jai'

Scientist Dr Bilal Habib from the Wildlife Institute of India, who had radio-collared the tiger, told mid-day that the search was on, exuding confidence that the camera traps would soon capture his image.