Translocated tigers in Sariska face big challenges: Filmmaker

Panaji: The tigers translocated at Sariska wildlife sanctuary have a bigger challenge than just surviving in the new environment, a wildlife filmmaker said today.

They have to fight back leopards, who have already made the area their territory after the tigers went extinct there, filmmaker S Nallamuthu said. The maker of documentary `Tiger Queen`, Nallamuthu says that he is working on a project `Tiger versus Leopards` at Sariska wildlife sanctuary. "This would be a sequel to the Tiger Queen," he said. After tigers got extinct in this sanctuary, leopards from neighbouring areas made this park as their home and the tigers who are translocated here have to fight it out with the leopards. "The issue at Sariska is not poaching but the ground reality that has changed after tigers went extinct," he explains. The filmmaker, whose documentary has been accepted by channels like Nat Geo and Animal Planet, said that the entire food chain has collapsed in this 850 square metres wide park. The issue of translocation of tiger into Sariska from Ranthambore wildlife sanctuary has attained significance after the first ever translocated tiger died. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh recently has vowed to go ahead with the translocation process, and announced an Rs 30-crore package to Sariska to aid the relocation of villagers in the tiger habitat area. Though the first tiger was translocated to Sariska in June 2008, the Rajasthan Forest Department began the process of rehabilitating villages in 2006. But since then only one complete hamlet has been shifted while four others are in various stages of completion. PTI