Search for Jai intensifies aftertigress found in South Umred

Nagpur: At a time when Bhandara division officials are still groping in the dark and have failed to find any evidence of the presence the iconic tiger Jai, hopes have brightened in South Umred with camera traps capturing a picture of full-grown tigress. The picture of a tigress was captured in camera traps laid by forest officials and volunteers on July 29, the Global Tiger Day.
Jai, the 5-6-year-old 250-kg male, is missing from Paoni in Umred-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary from April 18.
For the past 12 days, forest staff and Roheet Karu’s Wildlife Conservation and Development Centre (WLCDC) are searching for a tiger couple whose pugmarks were found in South Umred range following reports of a series of cattle kills. Volunteers are hopeful that a big male is also present in the area along with the tigress as there have been at least 15 unreported cattle kills in the forests surrounding a dozen villages in the range.
Though Jai has not been traced, volunteers are thrilled that for the first time evidence of presence of a tigress in the area has come to the fore. “Presence of tigers in South Umred calls for better management interventions,” they said.
On the contrary, Bhandara officials who deployed 8-10 camera traps for the last 10 days on a clue given by a shepherd Kisan Pende (65) of Pahela have yielded no results. Pende, who is partially blind, had claimed that he had sighted a big collared tiger. Since then Bhandara officials and Pench STPF team were searching Purkabodi and Ravanwadi areas.
“We have not found any evidence like cattle kill or pugmarks of Jai. The killing of a calf reported a few days ago was the handiwork of a leopard. We are still on the job but poor visibility due to tall grass and dense bushes is making the search difficult,” officials told TOI.
Rumours floating around following a tweet by Sudhir Mungantiwar was quelled by the forest minister himself who told TOI that unless “forest officials bring photo or video proof, he will not believe that Jai has been found”.
Meanwhile, hopes of forest officials from Kagaznagar in Adilabad to locate missing Jai were dashed on Sunday when camera trap images of a tiger, that left a 16-cm pugmark recently, were found to be of another male. On Sunday, Kagaznagar DFO Ravi Prasad said the pugmarks matched with that of a tiger whose picture was captured by a camera trap installed at the spot where it had previously killed a buffalo and returned to feed on it.