Soon, 2 tigresses from Chandrapur to be released in Nagzira in the first conservation translocation in Maha

The main reason behind undertaking this project is to increase the number of tigresses in the Nagzira block to balance the male-female ratio. Representation pic

If everything goes as per the plan, two tigresses from Chandrapur will soon be shifted to Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) in the Bhandara and Gondia districts of Maharashtra. This will be the first conservation translocation of tigers from the state.

Sunil Limaye, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF)-Wildlife, said, "On Monday an important meeting took place between forest department officials and senior scientist Bilal Habib of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) where the plan of shifting tigers from Chandrapur to NNTR was discussed in detail. Initially, two tigresses from Chandrapur would be shifted to NNTR in a month and fortnight."

The PCCF-Wildlife and WII officials, Maharashtra Forest Department officials from Chandrapur and NNTR were present for this
video conference.

"After a month, the forest department and WIII scientists along with veterinarians will start the process to capture the two tigresses. Once they are captured, a radio collar will be fitted on both the tigresses and they will be taken to NNTR by road, where they will be released. The forest department and WII team will continuously monitor the activity of the tigers and later two other females from Chandrapur will be translocated to NNTR," added Limaye.

The main reason behind undertaking this project is to increase the number of females in the Nagzira block to balance the male-female ratio. At present, the male-female ratio of tigers in NNTR is skewed and forest department officers feel that introducing tigresses to NNTR will help in increasing the population.

In a way, this conservation translocation of tigers will also help Chandrapur forests as the number of tigers there is high. If some sub-adults are shifted from this area, it will help reduce future man-animal conflicts.

According to All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2018 data, there were 312 tigers in Maharashtra. A senior forest department official told mid-day that according to the Phase IV annual estimation done by Maharashtra Forest Department in 2021, there are a minimum of over 352 tigers in the state and over 200 tigers are in Chandrapur district alone, which makes it a high human-animal conflict zone. It has also been reported that in 2021, there were a total of 84 deaths in Maharashtra due to human-animal conflicts and 44 deaths are from Chandrapur and 16 from Gadchiroli.

352
Number of tigers in Maharashtra