Maharashtra: Tipeshwar’s Walker Two finds new home in Aurangabad

T3C1 at a watering hole in Gautala Autram Ghat Sanctuary

A young tiger that walked all the way from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Vidarbha to Gautala Autram Ghat Sanctuary of Aurangabad, covering a 330 km road distance, appears to have made the sanctuary its home. Exclusive camera trap pictures accessed by mid-day show the tiger frequenting a watering hole in the sanctuary. The tiger was first spotted in Gautala Autram Ghat Sanctuary on March 15 by the forest department, which has been closely monitoring its movements.

T3C1 is over two years old

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF)-Wildlife West, Sunil Limaye, said, "Since March, our team at Gautala is closely monitoring tiger T3C1's movements. Camera traps have been installed at several locations. The interesting and surprising part about the tiger's journey is that during its travel from Pandharkawda to Gautala, it was not seen by anyone and there was zero man-animal conflict."

The sanctuary is spread across 260 square kilometres and 15 camera traps have been installed.

"The tiger is killing prey in the forest, including wild boar, sambar and neel gai. There is ample prey available in the sanctuary and right now it appears that the tiger has settled there," Limaye added.

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According to forest officials, this is the first tiger sighting in the sanctuary since 1940. Officials could not believe their eyes when they saw the footage from the camera trap.

The images were matched with the tiger database and the tiger was determined to be T3C1 (Walker 2), aged over two years, from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal district of Vidarbha. As this tiger does not have a radio collar on him, the forest department has to depend on camera traps.

Gautala Autram Ghat Sanctuary has southern tropical dry deciduous forest and grasslands

Experts feel that the tiger might have walked through Pandharkawda, Umarkhed, some parts of Telangana, Akola, Dnyanganga (Buldhana), Hingoli, and reached Gautala from the Ajanta mountain range, walking around 2,000 km.

The Gautala sanctuary has southern tropical dry deciduous forest and grasslands and it's home to a large number of animals like the jungle cat, leopard cat, barking deer, jackal, fox, leopard, wild boar and chinkara. As per the forest department data, the sanctuary is home to over 25 leopards.

The tiger that walked 3,000 km

In June 2019, a tiger named Walker 1 which was fitted with a radio caller started walking from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal where it was born and reached Dnyanganga Sanctuary in December 2019, travelling through eight districts of Maharashtra and Telangana. Forest department officials were able to track its movement till February 2020 till its radio collar was removed. It is said that the tiger walked for close to 3,000 km, the longest journey made by a tiger fitted with a radio collar. After the removal of the collar, there has been no information of where Walker 1 might be.

15
No. of camera traps monitoring Walker 2's movements

260 sq km
Expanse of the Gautala Autram Ghat Sanctuary

1940
Year a tiger was last sighted before T3C1 in the Gautala Autram Ghat Sanctuary

15
Day in March T3C1 was first sighted at a watering hole