Covering 120 km, tiger from Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand reaches Himachal Pradesh

DEHRADUN: A six-year-old male tiger from Rajaji National Park, trod all the way to Simbalbara National Park in Sirmour district of Himachal Pradesh recently, navigating a 120-km path through national highways, industrial areas, houses and rail tracks in two and a half months, becoming the first tiger to do so in around two decades, as per officials.
The big cat also became possibly the first tiger whose pug marks were spotted in Himachal in a long time.
Tiger movement revived across Terai Arc Landscape?
Tigers have been missing from Himachal and Haryana for over a decade now. The travelling tiger's image was caught on camera earlier in the week.
The adolescent tiger's journey started in winter last year, with Rajaji authorities tracking its movement after it crossed the Chilla-Motichur corridor. The fact that it completed the journey safely, wasn't seen or harmed and didn't harm any humans on its way, was a welcome surprise for the scientific community. The "feat" triggered curiosity among scientists about "revival" of tigers' presence in the stretch between Rajaji and Simbalbara, which is a part of the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL). The landscape stretches over 810km from Yamuna in the west to river Baghmati in the east, comprising the Shivalik foothills, the Terai flood plains and surrounding areas. It encompasses UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and some low-lying hills of Nepal and has as many as 13 protected areas, Rajaji and Corbett national parks among them. The three main species in the forests in TAL are the Asian elephant, one-horned rhino and the Royal Bengal tiger. In fact, there are around 650 tigers in TAL, which is 22% of India's tiger population. Thanks to its 10 wildlife corridors, TAL has several "transboundary tigers" that live outside protected areas and tend to be "on the move", scientists said. The territory of such tigers extends from Himachal Pradesh in India to Chitwan National Park in Nepal. Experts feel as these tigers move outside the protected areas, an all-new conservation policy is needed to protect them. According to officials of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) is "pursuing this strictly".
Chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand forest department Sameer Sinha said that the tiger's journey shows that the wildlife corridors are working in connecting wildlife across territories. "We could ascertain that it was the tiger from Rajaji using camera traps. The tiger is a free-ranging animal. There have been instances where tigers kept moving for kilometres." Officials, however, couldn't find the reason that led the tiger to migrate all the way to Himachal from Rajaji National Park. When asked about this, the chief wildlife warden said that "the behaviour of the tiger needs further exploration."