This story is from December 11, 2018

‘Captivity taking edge off Sundari’s animal instincts’

‘Captivity taking edge off Sundari’s animal instincts’
Sundari was recaptured on November 6 after two weeks of struggle following her reported man-eating tendencies.
BHUBANESWAR: Even after a month into tigress Sundari being recaptured and brought to the enclosure, the wildlife authorities are yet to take a decision when to release it again into the wild.
The task of releasing has become even more uncertain with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) confirming in its report that MB2, the male tiger and the first to be translocated to Satkosia Tiger Reserve, was killed by snares laid by poachers.

Sundari was recaptured on November 6 after two weeks of struggle following her reported man-eating tendencies. Sundari was brought from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh six months back.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist K Ramesh said no decision has been taken on further release of Sundari. “The enclosure is serving as a natural habitat. We have joined two enclosures to make it bigger so that multiple prey animals can be released as the to maintain the wild environment,” he said.
“Since there have been reports of it straying into human habitations, we need some more time to find out the reasons for its behaviour. We are monitoring her movements from the CCTV cameras installed in the enclosure,” Ramesh told TOI.
Ramesh is part of the inter-state tiger translocation project. He along with NTCA inspector general Amit Mallik recently filed their findings into the death of MB2 and mentioned that the deadly cut on dorsal region of the neck was due to a snare, which is mainly laid to hunt a
wild boar.
The wildlife lovers have expressed apprehension that Sundari might lose wilderness after staying more time in the enclosure. “When it was brought on June 29, it was kept for 40 days in the enclosure and now it has been more than a month. The predator has already spent more than two months in an enclosure ever since it was brought to Satkosia. I think, the authorities should take a call soon,” said former chief wildlife warden of the state Bijay Ketan Patnaik.
He said in case the state government is apprehensive from both the angles — man-eating tendency of the tigress and poaching — then it should be sent back to its parent sanctuary Bandhavgarh.
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