Jaipur: Two more tigers missing from Ranthambore for past four month

JAIPUR: Two more tigers have gone “missing” mysteriously from the Ranthambore National Park (RNP) which has recently gained notoriety for poaching.
Fresh reports are trickling that 15-year-old tiger T-47 aka Mohan and T-42 have been missing for last four months and all efforts by the forest department to trace them have gone in vain. With this, the number of missing tigers from RNP reaches 32.
According to sources, while a report of missing tiger Mohan has been sent to senior officials, the forest department is keeping mum on T-42 missing case. T-42 went missing from the Bherupura area where poachers were caught on trap camera this February.
Dharmendra Khandal, a conservation biologist, said, “Sending a report that T-47 is missing after four months is a face-saving exercise. In earlier times, combing operations to search the tigers were conducted by the department. However, this is missing currently. The forest administration should carry out serious and active patrolling to trace these missing tigers,” Khandal said.
Officials claimed that younger tigers seem to have taken over the territory of T-47 which was usually sighted in Phalodi and Taleda ranges. “One of the places frequented by Mohan was Bhid where T-104 is already in an enclosure. Besides, tiger T-97 and tigress T-54 have made their base in the same area. So it is quite possible that because of these big cats, T-47 was forced to quit its territory,” said a forest department official.
The last time T-47 was seen was when it was captured in a trap camera in Phalodi area in February this year following which a team was also constituted to track the animal but their search did not help in tracing the missing tiger.
Since 2009, the park has mysteriously lost 30 tigers, including seven old and 23 young ones. Among the 23 are 11 tigresses which do not usually venture out for creating a territory.
Experts claimed that there are two areas amounting to 60% of the total tigers that have gone missing from the park. Both these areas are natural habitats of the reserve but are close to 13 villages. The land here is fertile and there is plenty of water because of which extensive farming happens in these regions, said experts.
“Both these tigers also went missing from these blackholes,” said a source.