After not being able to sight a 20-year-old tigress for almost two months, Uttarakhand forest department has now deployed four teams on elephants to search for her.
The tigress went missing from the western part of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve and has not been sighted or camera trapped in almost two months. The search operation started on Monday.
Rajaji Tiger Reserve has only two tigresses in the western part and five tigers from Corbett are to be translocated to increase the population soon.
Harak Singh Rawat, state forest minister, said, “I have been in talks with the chief wildlife warden and officials of the forest department to trace the tigress at the earliest. Teams have been deployed to find the tigress.”
Officials said that a tigress was recently sighted in Barkot range of Dehradun forest division, but they are not sure if this is the same one.
DK Singh, director of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, said that the tigress has not been camera trapped since March
“We have deployed teams on elephants in Motichur, Kansaro, Ramgarh and Barkot forest ranges to search for the tigress. It is a matter of concern that the tigress has not been camera trapped since almost March,. Her pug marks and other signs were visible to staff while patrolling, but for almost two months, those signs have also not been sighted,” said Singh.
He added that a few days ago, pug marks similar to that of the big cat were seen in the Barkot range in Dehradun forest division so the officials are coordinating with them in the search operation.
During the last tiger estimation, it was found that the reserve had 34 resident tigers, including 32 in its eastern part, which is spread across 150 sq km area and two in the western part, which covers 570 sq km.
The eastern and the western part of the reserve are divided by a busy traffic corridor making it difficult for the tigers to migrate between the two parts.
