Tiger straying in human habitats quarantined at national park

Bhopal: A tiger having the tendency to stray into residential areas has been brought to Bhopal’s Van Vihar National Park where it has been kept in a quarantine facility, an official said on Sunday.

The tiger, named ‘Saran’, was first caged in December 2018 in Madhya Pradeshs Betul district after it strayed into a residential area from neighbouring Maharashtra.

It had killed two persons in Maharashtra’s Amravati district in October 2018, an official from the Van Vihar National Park here said.

Later, the feline wandered into territories of Madhya Pradesh and was rescued from a residential area of Sarani town in Betul, bordering Maharashtra, on December 11, 2018.

It was, however, given an opportunity to live in a natural habitat and released in the forest of Madhya Pradesh’s Satpura Tiger Reserve, the official said.

“But, the striped animal continued to show the tendency of straying into residential areas,” he said.

On February 10, 2019, it was again rescued from a residential area of Sarani and kept in an enclosure in the state’s Kanha Tiger Reserve, the official said.

“After the failed attempt to rehabilitate the tiger in its natural habitat, the tiger was brought from the Kanha Tiger Reserve to the Van Vihar National Park on Saturday and is currently kept in a quarantine facility,” he said.

With this, the number of tigers in the Van Vihar National Park has now gone up to 14, he added.