Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, which was recently in public eye for long migration of tigers to other States, is now in the news as wildlife experts are raising concern towards tiger conservation in the Sanctuary. On Saturday, some tourists noticed a tigress named ‘PC’ whose neck was entangled in a wire snare which caused severe wound. As per the information, the tigress was roaming in the forest with the snare for the last two days and after getting the information, Forest Department swung into action and started searching for the tigress. As per the recent tiger census, the population of big cats in Tipeshwar has increased. However, due to the shrinking habitat there, many tigers left the Sanctuary or are missing in recent times.

 

“Our teams are intensively searching for the tigress for last two days. We traced the location of the tigress. Despite wound, the tigress is shifting its place continuously,” Adarsh Reddy, Field Director, Melghat told ‘The Hitavada’. “The tigress was first noticed outside the protected area near an agriculture land. It may have happened as a farmer used wires to keep wild animals away from his field. We are conducting extensive patrolling in the forest area to rescue the tigress,” said Reddy. Though the threat of tiger poachers in the State is looming large, this incident has raised questions about the safety of tigers in the sanctuary. In last four months, two big cats including one female (T2) and one male (T8), who went missing from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, are still untraceable by the Forest Department. Migration of tigers may be a reason, but if both tigers are not traceable by the department then it raise concern about poaching as well. “The search operation for both tigers is underway.

 

However, we noticed a new male in the territory of T8 and we are predicting that it left its territory after a fight with the new male,” said Reddy. However, the Field Director said that T2 tigress, which was also known as “Talabwali” in Tipeshwar, has also migrated from the Sanctuary but the department has no proof about this claim. “We have installed camera traps at many locations to trace both tigers and we got the last camera trap footage of these tigers in October-November.” said Reddy. “Many tigers in Maharashtra are now missing or untraceable. It shows the lack of monitoring of wildlife in territorial forest areas. There is an utmost need to equip territorial areas with camera traps and other monitoring mechanisms to track tigers migrating from one tiger reserve to another,” said a wildlife expert.