A Tiger's "Historic" 500-km Journey From Madhya Pradesh To Odisha

Bhubaneswar: With the male Royal Bengal Tiger from Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh settling well in Odisha's Satkosia, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said "history has been created" in tiger conservation and revival efforts in India. 

"Many congratulations to @ForestDeptt & Kanha Tiger Reserve on successful translocation of MB2, the first of six planned tigers brought to Satkosia Tiger Reserve in India's first inter-state #TigerRelocation exercise. History has been created in tiger conservation and revival efforts in the country," Mr Patnaik said in a tweet. 

Odisha Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray said despite the tiger's 24-hour journey covering about 500 km from Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, the big cat is found to be healthy and fine. 

The animal is under watch and kept in an enclosure. The minister said though tigers from one forest to another have been relocated in the past, this is for the first time a Royal Bengal Tiger has undertaken such a long and tedious journey to reach its destination at Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Angul district. 

Stating that the tiger is being monitored round-the-clock, he said the Wildlife Institute of India and Kanha Tiger Reserve officials will take a call on when the tiger will bereleased into the wild. The big cat brought from Madhya Pradesh is one of the best specimens of the Royal Bengal Tiger, PCCF (Wildlife) Sandeep Tripathy said. 

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Forest and Environment Secretary SC Mohapatra said,"We did not have any male tiger at Satkosia. Now, we will watch how the old tigers are behaving with the guest from Madhya Pradesh. We will monitor their movement." Mr Mohapatra said that a total of three pairs of tigerswill be brought from Madhya Pradesh within two years, out of which one male already arrived.