2 Pench tigresses to make Borivli park their home

NAGPUR: Two eight-year-old tigresses, TF1 and TF2, kept in an enclosure at Pench Tiger Reserve will be sent to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivli.
Sources said that the decision was taken on Monday based on a report by a committee of officials and experts not to release the hand-reared tigresses in their natural habitat. The panel opposed the release of these tigress into the wild, considering their age and lack of hunting skills.The tigresses have been kept in a 4-hectare enclosure in Pench.
Even as the issue was being debated in January, chief conservator of forests for SGNP, Vikas Gupta, had sought possession of the wildcats. He had earlier told TOI that he had sought the two tigresses.
The two tigresses that will be shifted to SGNP are of wild breed and were over six months old when captured in 2009 from Chandrapur after the mother was allegedly poached. A male sibling has already been sent to Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj in 2014.
Initially, these tigresses had been kept in a small enclosure at Bor wildlife sanctuary but three years later they were shifted to a big enclosure in Pench.
Prafulla Bhamburkar, Central India adviser of Wildlife Trust of India, hailed the decision. “It’s high time we recognize that releasing such animals is ethically wrong. There is a world of difference between a captive-raised tiger killing a deer in an enclosure and the same tiger trying to kill a wild prey.”