No question of shifting tigress Sundari from Satkosia Tiger Reserve: WII

Bhubaneswar: A team from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which is in Odisha to study the behaviour of Royal Bengal Tigress Sundari, maintained that the tiger would not be shifted from Satkosia Tiger Reserve.

“This is an ambitious mission and project taken up by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to increase the number of big cats in the country. As this project is finalised, any alteration and change in the decision will be very difficult,” said WII expert Dr Ramesh.

“We have studied several aspects of this project in detail and any problem arising on this issue would be settled in a sustained manner,” he added.

The team of WII, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and NTCA reached Satkosia on Saturday and began monitoring Sundari’s behaviour the following day.

The expert team reached the sanctuary after the tigress allegedly mauled a woman to death leading to violent protest in the area by the locals.

The postmortem report of the woman revealed that she had died in a wild animal attack. However, it did not specify whether it was a tigress and any animal of the same species.

Angul district collector Anil Kumar Samal said the postmortem report mentioned that the death was due to asphyxia and wounds caused by wild animal bite but it did not specify if a tiger had killed the woman.