Forest personnel leave for Madhya Pradesh to study tiger behaviour

BHUBANESWAR: Field-level personnel of the forest department’s wildlife wing have left for the three tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh to gather knowledge about habitat management and monitoring.
The exercise is aimed at upgrading the skills of field personnel of Satkosia Tiger Reserve, before shifting the three pairs of tigers from Kanha, Panna and Bandhavgarh tiger reserves. Satkosia will get the six predators in the last week of April.

“A lot of technical knowledge is required to oversee the management of a habitat where six tigers from other sanctuaries will be released. Since the predators are yet to fix their territory, the field personnel need to learn the details about their behaviour. They also need to know how personnel in the Madhya Pradesh sanctuaries are monitoring the movement of big cats,” said principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Sandip Tripathy.

The forest department is yet to disclose the particular portion of the core area in Satkosia where the big cats will be released. The location will never be disclosed. This should be kept secret as far as practicable even after release of tigers, said a personnel, who is part of the team that has gone for training. Officials said the tigers might be tranquilised by experts in their parent sanctuary for smooth transition.