THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, October 18: The arrival of a robust and healthy three or four-year-old male tiger in the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) in recent days has once again proved that the visiting tiger finds PTR a place to stay for its habitat, food and water.
Tigers coming to PTR is a badge of trust of them in this tiger reserve as dispersal of tigers from central India to other distant lands is a ‘hint’ of Nature that there are good lands yonder the reserve where these travelling tigers used to live.
PTR is no longer a shunned reserve for the tigers. It’s a choice destination for the tigers. However, PTR asks for a more pragmatic approach for its betterment in terms of availability of feed for both carnivores and herbivores.
Tigers have learnt to choose their food, unlike the leopards, which are very fastidious about their food.
The new male tiger has not been eye sighted. It’s recorded in camera traps.
“Its stripes are different. It doesn’t match the stripes of a couple of tigers that we have here,” reminded P K Jena, Deputy Director North Division of PTR.
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Female Tigers Still Absent
However, it’s a male tiger that descends here from as far off as a minimum hundred kilometres.
A female tiger can’t afford such a long travel. However, PTR would have been far more cheerful had any female tiger came here.
Tigers in PTR are in a state of asceticism due to the conspicuous absence of the female tigers here. Such an asceticism is by compulsion, not by choice.
PTR management has limited things in hand. It can vociferously ask for the translocation of female tigers. And there is a whole range of procedure for it.
Jena pointed out that tigers are getting obese, which is not a good thing for them.
Sexual virility and physical prowess are demanded of a tiger for the simple reason of procreation. Here in PTR, male tigers don’t get any chance or opportunity to exhibit their sexual virility.
Tigers’ Feeding Habits and Health
If copulation is wanting for decades here, food is very much around in the PTR. Tigers have a varied palate. Cheetal and Sambhar are no longer the first and last on the menu. It’s wild boar, buffalo and Nilgai too.
Jena has this to share when he said, “One talks about prey and prey base. It’s a good topic of academic discussion. But on the ground, what one finds. It’s cattle. Tigers have no aversion to cattle. They love killing and eating it.”
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Community Support and Conservation Efforts
On protection, Jena said, “There is never any compromise with it. It’s of high order. Our Jan Bhagidari campaign has bridged the gap between the villagers and the PTR teams.”
Jena added, “We have been able to regain the confidence and trust of people in the PTR.”
The recent bringing down of the country made guns from home to PTR and disowning their own weapons, is indicative of the fact that villagers are convinced that PTR would be a friend in their distress and not any persecutor, said PTR sources.
Relocation of two villages has taken off very smoothly. The four decades old Mandal dam issue is set to be fully resolved giving PTR a free run of space and water for its wild life.
