Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A tigress was tranquilised, and its defunct radio collar was removed in Barbaspur beat of the Dhamokar buffer area of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve on Saturday. Later, all health parameters of the tigress were checked and, when it was found to be fully healthy, it was released into the wild.
Sources in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve said the action plan to remove the radio collar was taken after permission was obtained from principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Samita Rajora. Braving heavy rain, an intensive search operation was conducted across 100 sq km to locate the tigress. Along with 63 officials, four trained elephants - Laxman, Surya, Rama and Shyam - were deployed in the search operation.
After the tigress was spotted, it was tranquilised and its non-functional radio collar was removed.
During the search operation, camera traps and other modern equipment were used by the search team. Notably, the tigress's radio collar had not been working for the past several days and, hence, there was no information about its well-being or movement.
This forced forest officials to launch a massive search operation. The tigress was finally traced on July 12. Thereafter, guidance was sought from the PCCF (wildlife) regarding the defunct radio collar.
