Two tigers fight over territory in Odisha forest; wildlife lovers happy

Two adult Royal Bengal Tigers fought for over a week over territory inside the Similipal National Park in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district and the defeated one had to leave to settle elsewhere, an official said on Monday.

The incident which happened last month brought cheers to wildlife enthusiasts as it is now proved that the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) has sufficient tigers.

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The fighting animals were recorded in cameras fitted on trees for the ongoing tiger census in the STR.

”The fight broke out between two tigers, T-35 and T-31, on November 9. Thereafter, sporadic fighting went on for a week. T-31 had to leave the area while T-35 is believed to have won the fight,” STR director Prakash Gogineni said.

T-31 and T-35 are code numbers allocated to the tigers.

The STR shared an image of T-35 on its official X handle. ”He is T-35 a young tiger trying to claim territory. Got into a fight with T-31. Seems to be victorious as it confidently patrols its area,” the STR said about the image.

Wildlife lovers are happy as they deduce that the population of tigers must be high.

”When there is a good number of tigers, only then they fight over territory,” wildlife expert AK Singh said.

Forest officials predicted that the number of tigers so far counted in the STR area through camera traps could be 35. The population of tigers in the STR will be officially announced in January after completion of the census.

According to the latest report issued by the Centre last year, the number of tigers in Odisha was 20 of which 16 were in Similipal.