Call for tranquilised tiger’s rehabilitation in Andhra landscape grows louder

Wildlife experts working in tiger landscapes in India and environmentalists insist on the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) rehabilitating the tiger, tranquilised at a village in East Godavari district on February 6, instead of confining it to a cage or a zoo.

The tiger was tranquilised at Kurmapuram village in East Godavari district on February 6 and was shifted to the Animal Rescue Centre (ARC-isakhapatnam) the next day.

Given its behaviour over the past 53 days, during which it walked nearly 650 km along the tigers’ functional corridor on the four-state borders, it is being labelled as ‘innocent’ as it didn’t attack humans anywhere, preying only on cattle. It is a natural tendency for any adult tiger to establish its own territory, and the tiger is believed to have been in search for one before it was tranquilised.

Since 2022, two other tigers, believed to have been natives of central India tiger landscapes, walked through the ‘functional corridor’ — spread across Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh — before entering Papikonda National Park (PNP-Andhra Pradesh) to find a potential new territory for their survival.

Shy around humans

Former Secretary to the Government of India and renowned environmentalist E.A.S. Sarma told The Hindu that the tiger should be reintroduced to its natural habitat when its health condition meets the rehabilitation criterion of the NTCA. “Being a young tiger, it should not be confined to a zoo under any circumstances”.

The tiger, believed to be between three and four years of age, is shy when encountering human beings. “The emotional response and behaviour will surely change if the tiger came in contact with human imprints frequently. There is every possibility of human imprints if the tiger is kept in the enclosure for more days and is prone to being infected with any disease,” an expert involved in various tiger rescue operations in South India told The Hindu, on the condition of anonymity.

Radio collaring

The wildlife expert added that the tiger could be radio collared to monitor its presence, behaviour and movements, and this technology enables easy tranquilisation if required after rehabilitation in a natural habitat, preferably in Papikonda National Park in Andhra Pradesh.

In India, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are the front-runners in the adoption of the radio collaring, while Andhra Pradesh lags behind.

Meet on February 9

A team comprising renowned veterinarians, conservationists from the Wildlife Institute of India, and experts from the NTCA and various tiger reserves will take a call on what to do with the tiger at a meeting scheduled to be held online on February 9.