Jai might still be missing but his son Bali has risen from the depths of the jungle. Bali was spotted in Pench Tiger Reserve; experts believe he walked nearly 100 kilometres to find his way there
An archival pic of Bali. Pic/Mohammed Junaid Ismail
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Jai might still be missing but his son Bali has risen from the depths of the jungle. The latter, who went missing in June last year, was finally sighted on Friday at Pench Tiger Reserve by a wildlife lover. It seems that the tiger walked almost 90-100 km from Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary (58 kilometres from Nagpur) to the Nagalwadi range (Madhya Pradesh), that is part of the Pench Tiger Reserve buffer zone. This basically means Bali crossed two national highways and a state highway. The incident goes to show one more time how the movement of dispersing tigers has proved that the conservation of wildlife corridors connecting national parks is crucial to conserving the species.
On Friday, wildlife lover and photographer Shariq Mohammed Surewani sighted Bali while on a safari. "Shariq saw the tiger near the Nagalwadi range. He took photos and later sent them to me. When I tallied that with the photos of the tiger in my database, it was clear that it was indeed Bali," said Ismail, member of Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW), an independent group of wildlife lovers and photographers.
Back in 2014, the iconic male tiger, Jai, was also, arguably, the biggest tiger in central India, along with the famous tigress, Chandi, from Umred Karhandla wildlife sanctuary. They had four cubs, Bahu, Bali, Bhadra and Barkha — three males and one female. In September 2015, Jai was radio-collared for the first time, but according to forest department officials, in January 2016, the collar developed a problem. A new collar was fitted, but he went missing on April 18, and since then has not been found.
Wildlife lover and photographer Mohammad Junaid Ismail, who is member of the group CLAW,âu00c2u0080u00c2u0088said, "After Bali went missing in June last year, we used to search for him during all our safaris, trying to gauge his whereabouts."
Bali was last sighted at the Kuhi range of Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary in August 2016, when he had killed a cow.
Bali is estimated to be 2.5 years old, and experts believe that he might have developed his own territory in the Pench Tiger Reserve. Bali seems to have inherited his trudging prowess from his father. In September 2013, Jai travelled more than 100 kilometres to reach the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary.
While there is no exact proof about the corridor that Bali took to reach Pench, experts feel he may have taken started off at Tarna, then Satara and Kuhi, to Adam, Bhivkund and Rajola, and reached Mouda, before walking to Ramtek and finally reaching Nagalwadi.
Sarosh Lodhi, a member of CLAW, said, "So many success stories of migrating and dispersing tigers from central India just goes to show how important it is to keep the corridors intact. This particular incident also throws light on important factors that ensure the safety of corridors."
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