Pench reserve starts rewilding of two orphan tiger cubs

Nagpur: As reported by TOI on March 16, the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), Maharashtra, has launched the rewilding experiment of two orphaned tiger cubs at Titralmangi in a bigger enclosure in the reserve.
The two eight-month-old cubs, one male and one female, of tigress PKT-7, were rescued on March 14, 2023, from Mandwa in the Ghatanji forest range adjoining Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary near Pandharkawda. The tigress died under mysterious circumstances on January 28.
Such experiments require minimum human imprints on the animals. Belatedly, the two cubs were shifted to a bigger enclosure in Pench on Wednesday after a gap of 15 days. This will be the third such experiment to rewild orphaned tiger cubs in Pench.
The vehicles carrying the cubs from the transit treatment center were accompanied by veterinarians and all the health parameters were perfect before releasing them in the enclosure.
“Initially, the cubs will be fed meat followed by live animals to check whether they can hunt. The entire experiment will be monitored by CCTVs to avoid human imprints,” said Pench officials.
“Though the cubs showed some signs of stress, both were moving freely after getting a bigger home. Veterinarians said they will be normal once familiar with the area,” said Pench officials.
“Rewilding process will be carried as per the NTCA SOPs and all precautions will be taken,” said PCCF (wildlife) Maheep Gupta.
On Wednesday, the entire process was completed in the presence of Pench field director A Sreelakshmi. Deputy director Prabhu Nath Shukla, FDCM divisional manager Shatanik Bhagwat, ACF Atul Deokar, and RFO Mangesh Tate were also present.
Though PCCF Gupta’s decision to rewild the cubs was a good move, similar experiments in the past have gone awry for various reasons.
In December 2018, PKT-1 aka Avni’s one-year-old cub was rescued from Pandharkawda and shifted to Pench where it was trained for two years.
On March 5, 2021, the three-year-old Avni’s offspring PTRF-84 was released in the wild in Pench itself. However, three days after its release it was attacked by another tiger in which the feline suffered serious injuries and died four days later.
Prior to this experiment, in June 2015, a tigress TF2 that was rewilded in the Pench enclosure was captured after 24 days post its release. The villagers from Khapa threatened to attack the tigress after it came close to the village.