Experiment fails, Pench tigress back in enclosure

The tigress photographed on June 6 by forest officials.

Twenty-two days after she was released in the wild on an experimental basis, Pench’s hand-reared tigress, TF2, was tranquilised and restored to her confinement Tuesday evening after she failed to hunt on her own and was seen loitering around in a dehydrated condition.

A press note issued by Field Director of Pench Tiger Reserve Shrinivas Reddy said, “The six-year-old tigress that grew up in a large four hectare enclosure was released on May 17 in the wild after she was trained to hunt chital in her enclosure. There was hope that she might learn to live on her own in the wild but it was found by the teams tracking her since her release that she had not been able to make a kill. On June 8, she was found staying just 500 metres away from Khapa village in a very weak condition. So as was decided for such an eventuality, she was tranquilised and caged as she was found to be unfit to lead an independent life in the wild.” The doctors who checked her up said she had injury marks on her body and had shed 16 kg weight on account of severe dehydration, the note added.

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After three years of deliberation, the National Tiger Conservation Authority had issued permission in April to release the tigress in the wild. The officials had then decided to recapture the tigress if it failed to adapt to the wild or move closer to human settlement. Two teams continuously monitored the radio-collared tigress round the clock to prevent any untoward incident. The tigress had initially moved in southern direction towards a river about 5 km away from her enclosure but had returned after a few days before moving in the northeastern direction towards Lamandoh area of the reserve.

She was once fed with a live bait but after some activists raised objection, officials decided to wait for her to do her own kill. That, however, didn’t happen. There were also reports of her getting into a territorial fight with another tigress, but that could not be confirmed.