JOIN USMaharashtra: 2 tigresses captured in Chandrapur moved to NNTR
Two tigresses captured in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district were relocated to the Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra marking a significant milestone in India’s tiger conservation programme.
The NNTR is spread over the Gondia and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra.
In order to curb the incidents of man-animal conflict in the Chandrapur, the Maharashtra Forest Department (MFD) intends to relocate around 30 tigers.
As part of the first step of the move, two tigresses were released in the NNTR on Saturday by Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar amid the presence of top MFD officials.
The NNTR has a core area of 656.36 sq km while the buffer zone is 1,241.24 sq km.
According to the All India Tiger Estimates Estimation report of 2022, NNTR harbours 11 tigers.
It has the capacity to harbour 20-odd adult tigers.
As per the conservation translocation a total of 5 tigresses are to be translocated to NNTR.
The translocated tigers would be monitored 24x7 with the help of VHF team and command control room, MFD officials said. Before the release, the tigresses were examined by teams of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India.
It may be pertinent to note that over the last few years, the Brahmapuri-Chandrapur landscape has seen several incidents of man-animal conflict.
After the first phase of relocation in NNTR, the second phase involving 25 other tigers will be relocated to Sahyadri, Melghat and Sambhajinagar.
Maharashtra had 190 tigers in 2014 and the number rose to 312 in 2019 and now the state has more than 500 big cats. Vidarbha has the most number of tigers in Maharashtra.