Madhya Pradesh: Madhav National Park gets two tigers

A tiger and tigress were released into enclosures in Madhav National Park in Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in a bid to revive the big cat population in the facility. While the tiger was captured in October last year after it strayed into the sprawling premises of the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) in Bhopal, the tigress that was released into MNP was brought from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. The tiger, after its capture from MANIT, was released in Satpura Tiger Reserve in October and has been brought to MNP from STR. The translocation of the two big cats took place to mark the birth anniversary on Friday of former Union Minister Madhavrao Scindia, the father of Jyotiraditya Scindia. MNP, incidentally, is named after their ancestor Madho Rao Scindia. Chouhan and Scindia pulled a lever each to release the two big cats from their cages into the enclosures, the officials said, adding five tigers in all, comprising two males and three females, will be translocated to MNP to revive the big cat population. This is the third time the MP forest department is going re-introduce a tiger in a wildlife sanctuary, with successful projects of the kind having been undertaken in Panna Tiger Reserve and the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Sagar, officials said. MNP had tigers up to 1970 but hunting wiped out the big cat from the park.