Orphaned Tiger Cubs Shifted to Pench Reserve For “Rewilding”

Orphaned Tiger Cubs Shifted to Pench Reserve For “Rewilding”

Subject :Environment

Section: Places in news

Section:

Context: Two orphaned tiger cubs rescued from the Pandharkawada forest range in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district have been moved to Pench Tiger Reserve for “rewilding”.

More on the News:

• Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), Maharashtra, has launched the rewilding experiment of two orphaned tiger cubs at Titralmangi in a bigger enclosure in the reserve.
• The two eight-month-old cubs, one male and one female, of tigress PKT-7, were rescued on March 14, 2023, from Mandwa in the Ghatanji forest range adjoining Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary near Pandharkawda.
• The tigress died under mysterious circumstances on January 28.Belatedly, the two cubs were shifted to a bigger enclosure in Pench on Wednesday after a gap of 15 days.
• Rewilding process will be carried as per the NTCA SOPs and all precautions will be taken.
• In December 2018, PKT-1 aka Avni’s one-year-old cub was rescued from Pandharkawda and shifted to Pench where it was trained for two years. On March 5, 2021, the three-year-old Avni’s offspring PTRF84 was released in the wild in Pench itself. However, three days after its release it was attacked by another tiger in which the feline suffered serious injuries and died four days later.
• Prior to this experiment, in June 2015, a tigress TF2 that was rewilded in the Pench enclosure was captured after 24 days post its release. The villagers from Khapa threatened to attack the tigress after it came close to the village.

Rewilding of Wild animals:

• Rewilding is a conservation approach that involves reintroducing or restoring wild animals and their habitats to areas where they have been previously extirpated or degraded.
• As per the Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under Section 38(O) of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, there are three ways to deal with orphaned or abandoned tiger cubs.
  • The first is to make an effort to reunite the abandoned cubs with their mother.
  • Second, if a reunion of the cub with its mother is not possible, then shift the cub to a suitable zoo.
  • Third, reintroduction of the cub into the wild after a certain time when it appears that the cub is capable of surviving in the wild independently. This is what is known as ‘re-wilding’.
  • NTCA stresses that the tiger cub should be reared in an in situ enclosure for a minimum of two years, and during this time, each cub should have a successful record of at least 50 ‘kills’.

Pench Tiger Reserve:

• Pench Tiger Reserve or Pench National Park is one of the premier tiger reserves of India and the first one to straddle across two states – Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
• The portion of the reserve that is in Madhya Pradesh is nestled in the southern slopes of the Satpura range of Central India.
• Pench Tiger Reserve was the inspiration behind Rudyard Kipling’s famous novel, “The Jungle Book”. The area was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1977, and later a national park and tiger reserve in 1983 and 1992 respectively.
• The vegetation in the Pench Tiger Reserve is predominantly southern tropical dry deciduous forest. It is home to a variety of tree species, such as teak, sal, saja, achar, and dhawada. There are also bamboo forests and grasslands in the reserve.
• River pench flows into reserve cutting it into two from North to South before going on to join the Kanhan River, The Pench River which emerges from Mahadeo Hills of Satpura Ranges.
• Apart from tigers and Indian bison, the Pench Tiger Reserve is also home to other large carnivores such as leopards, wild dogs, and hyenas. Other wildlife species found in the reserve include jackals, foxes, sloth bears, sambar deer, chital, and wild boars. The reserve is also a birdwatcher’s paradise with over 285 species of birds.