MP national park gets 2 tigers in big cat revival efforts

A Madhya Pradesh national park that last housed a tiger a decade ago, on Friday received two adult tigers from nearby forests as the Union environment ministry is making an effort to repopulate the central Indian forest with tigers aiming to create a crucial corridor for the big cats in Ranthambore to disperse in the wider central Indian landscape.

A four-year-old male from Satpura and a three-and-half-year-old tigress from Bandhavgarh tiger reserves were released into specially created enclosures in Madhav National Park, where the animals would be monitored before they are released in the wild.

One of the oldest national parks of Madhya Pradesh notified in 1956, Madhav had a sizable tiger population in the past, but lost them over the years. The last reported tiger sighting was in 2012.

“Spread over an area of more than 350 sq km, the location of the park assumes conservation significance as it has the potential to connect Panna Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh with Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan,” the ministry said.

According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Ranthambore is the only source population of the big cats in the Ranthambhore-Mukundara-Kuno-Shivpuri-Madhav landscape, marked by fragmented forest patches, Chambal ravines and agriculture lands.

Because of its isolated location, the 50 odd tiger population at Ranthambore carry a higher risk of getting wiped out due to inbreeding practices unlike other inter-connected landscapes in central India and Western Ghats, Bangalore biologists from National Centre for Biological Sciences have shown.