India News | MP: T-1, the First Tigress Brought to Panna Reserve Under Special Project 14 Years Ago, Dies
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Tigress T-1, the first big cat shifted to Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) under a reintroduction Project almost 14 years ago and who had given birth to 13 cubs in her lifetime, has died, an official said on Wednesday.
Panna (MP), Feb 1 (PTI) Tigress T-1, the first big cat shifted to Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) under a reintroduction Project almost 14 years ago and who had given birth to 13 cubs in her lifetime, has died, an official said on Wednesday.
The tigress had made a very remarkable contribution to the success of Panna's Tiger Reintroduction Project (TRP). She was the first tigress to be brought here from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, also in Madhya Pradesh, in March 2009, under the project as the PTR was left with no big cats at that time.
"A patrolling team spotted the carcass of a big cat on Tuesday evening in the Madla range. An inactive radio collar, which was worn by T-1 in 2017, was found near the carcass," PTR's field director Brijendra Jha said, adding a team of forest officials reached the spot and inspected the area.
T-1 died naturally as nothing suspicious suggesting anything otherwise was found in the area, he said.
After the postmortem, the carcass was disposed of on Wednesday morning as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) guidelines. The viscera was sent to laboratories at Sagar and Jabalpur for examination, the forest officer said.
According to Jha, the T-1 was roaming in the PTR buffer zone. She was surviving on hunting done by other tigers for some time as she had lost the strength to kill prey due to her age.
"The tigress had given birth to 13 cubs in five litters. T-1, who lived in PTR for 14 years, made a very remarkable contribution to the success of Panna's Tiger Reintroduction Project," Jha said.
The average age of a tiger is around 14 years but T-1 lived beyond that, he said.
According to the All-India Tiger Estimation Report 2018, Madhya Pradesh was home to 526 tigers, the highest for any state in the country.
The next All India Tiger Estimation Report is due this year as Census work in the country was completed last year.
Madhya Pradesh has many tiger reserves, including Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Satpura and Panna.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)