Tigress airlifted to Panna Tiger Reserve

September 25th, 2009 BHOPAL - Two tigresses in the Panna national park in Madhya Pradesh, earlier slated to get a male companion Friday, will now have to wait at least for another four weeks as the tiger identified for relocation turned out to be from the same gene pool to which one of the tigresses belongs, a forest department official said. "Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist Dr Ramesh, who is at Bandhavgarh, objected to the identified tiger being relocated after it was found to be from the same gene pool as a tigress already at Panna," said a forest department official, who did not wish to be named.

September 24th, 2009 BHOPAL - Two tigresses at the Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh will soon have male company. This will be the third Royal Bengal tiger to be relocated to the sanctuary, which once boasted of at least 30 of the big cats but lost them all.

September 18th, 2009 BHOPAL - One more tigress was found dead at the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, an official said Friday. The partially eaten body of the tigress was found in the Kisli Range of the park Thursday.

August 20th, 2009 BHOPAL - The depleting number of big cats in Madhya Pradesh has gone down further with one more tigress found dead at Bandhavgarh national park and her three cubs also untraceable, wildlife officials said Thursday. This is the third tiger death at Bandhavgarh this year.

July 5th, 2009 BHOPAL - With its tiger population dwindling sharply over the last two years, a worried Madhya Pradesh government will deploy a Special Tiger Protection Force in its three tiger reserves of Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench to arrest the big cat's worrying decline. The state government took the decision as it does not want to lose its 'Tiger State' tag to Karnataka due to the falling number of the big cats, according to a forest department official.

June 30th, 2009 BHOPAL - A panel set up by the Madhya Pradesh government to probe how tigers have disappeared from the Panna Tiger Reserve will begin its work Thursday, officials said. The central government had earlier criticised the state government for failing to pay heed to the warnings about the tigers' disappearance from Panna.

June 17th, 2009 BHOPAL - Piqued over the vanishing tigers in the state, the Madhya Pradesh government has constituted an experts committee to find out the reasons behind the declining number of tigers in Panna Tiger Reserve, officials said Wednesday. In April this year, a central government team led by former National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) chief P.K.

June 4th, 2009 BHOPAL - A three-year-old tigress died at the Van Vihar National Park here, officials said Thursday. The park has lost 23 big cats in the last five years.

May 21st, 2009 BHOPAL - Taking serious note of the decline in number of tigers in the state, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has transferred field directors of the Kanha, Panna and Bandhavgarh national parks with immediate effect, an official said Thursday. 'Reviewing wildlife conservation in the state at a meeting of senior forest department officials late Wednesday, the chief minister expressed displeasure over the prevailing situation on tiger conservation across the state and warned of strict action against slack officials,' a highly placed official told IANS.

May 9th, 2009 RAIPUR - An 11-year-old white tigress was found dead in a zoo Saturday in Bhilai city of Chhattisgarh, an official said. The tigress was found dead in Maitri Bagh Zoo in Bhilai in Durg district, about 30 km west of capital Raipur.

March 11th, 2009 BHOPAL - Having successfully shifted two tigresses to Panna Tiger Reserve recently, the Madhya Pradesh forest department now plans to move a tiger too there as the sanctuary's sole male tiger is untraceable, officials said. The only male tiger found during a Wildlife Institute of India (WII) survey using the camera trap method in December last year, is untraceable now, a forest department official said.

March 5th, 2009 BHOPAL - A tigress was shifted from Bandhavgarh to the Panna tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh by road Wednesday after the authorities failed to get an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter, an official said. 'The decision to send the four-year-old big cat by road was taken due to the delay in receiving a chopper from the IAF,' Additional Principal Chief Conservator Forest (Wildlife) H.S.

March 2nd, 2009 BHOPAL - The first of the two tigresses to be shifted from Bandhavgarh Tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh would be flown to the state's Panna Tiger Reserve in an Indian Air Force helicopter this week, officials said Monday. 'The stage is all set for the translocation of two tigresses, of which one would be shifted this week and another after a gap of five to six days, from Bandhavgarh to the state's Panna Tiger Reserve where perhaps no tigress has been sighted in the past one year,' said Madhya Pradesh's Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) H.S.

January 24th, 2009 BHOPAL - Van Vihar National Park in the Madhya Pradesh capital may soon get a pair of white tigers from the Nandankanan Zoo in Orissa after an approval from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), state forest minister said. But the national park will have to part with tigress Sara and a pair of jackals under an exchange programme with the Nandankanan Zoo.

January 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A tiger count is in progress in Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve even as officials are finalising plans to fly in two tigresses from another sanctuary next month, officials said. 'The two tigresses will be selected for relocation either from Bandhavgarh or Kanha tiger reserve,' said L.K.