Sundari on Prowl: Expert team from MP to join operation in Satkosia

Bhubaneswar: With repeated attempts to capture tigress ‘Sundari’ in the past 48 hours failing to yield results, Odisha has now decided to rope in two special teams from outside to tranquilise the big cat which has already been branded as a ‘man-eater’.

Additional Principal Conservator of Forests, Sudarshan Panda informed today that the two expert teams from Kanha and Pench Tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh will be engaged to tranquilise the tigress.

The teams are expected to arrive in Odisha in the next two to three days time, informed Panda.

“We had requested the officials of Kanha and Pench Tiger reserves to assist in the ongoing operation to capture the tigress and their government has already approved the proposal,” said Panda.

Panda further stated that it is now almost three days that three teams including experts from OUAT have been trying hard to tranquilise the tigress which has unleashed terror in Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Angul.

As the region is completely a bushy area, the team is finding hard to take a shot at the tigress. However, the team members are closely monitoring the movement of the tigress which was last spotted near Baghamunda area.

Meanwhile, an expert team from the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) has gone back after failing to capture Sundari. Other teams deployed in Satkosia to tranquilise the tigress have started the fourth phase of operation.

Sources said another team has been deployed around the hills to keep a close watch at the movement of Sundari.

Though massive operations were launched by the tranquillising team, Sundari managed to give them a slip since the last two days. Sources said as many as 50 officials were deployed by the Forest department to capture Sundari.

On the other hand, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Sandeep Tripathy had earlier informed that once the tigress is tranquillised and captured, it will be shifted to a special protected enclosure at Raiguda.

Many wildlife experts have observed a deviation in the behaviour of Sundari as the tigress is reluctant to stay in the wild. Moreover, as it is not feeding properly on its ‘prey’, it is attacking animals and human beings at regular intervals.

Meanwhile, locals have intensified their protests demanding immediate shifting of tigress Sundari after it allegedly killed two persons and a bullock in Satkosia Tiger Reserve.