The Story Of A Tiger Travelling 1,300 km Over 150 Days Across 6 Districts, 2 States, Is Giving Reasons To Rethink Our Conservation Policy

Tigers are extremely protective about their territory, particularly the males that control a larger area, often overlapping several female territories.The male tiger marks its territory depending on several factors including food, water, shelter and, females.?

They are also known to migrate long distances in search of territories. But the unusual story of a tiger travelling over 1,300 km spanning six districts in over 150 days has left many perplexed.?

The young adult tiger, officially known as TWLS-T1-C1, (not to be confused with TC-C1, the cub of tigress Avni) had travelled from its home in the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra and strayed into Telangana before finally settling in the Dnyanganga Wildlife Sanctuary in Buldhana district of Maharashtra.?

TWLS-T1-C1 had left the Tipeshwar sanctuary in June 2019 and had been constantly traveling over 150 days before it finally reached Dnyanganga Wildlife Sanctuary, where it is said to have established its new territory.?

T1-C1 was born in Tipeshwar to resident TWLS-T1 somewhere in late 2016. The tiger has two male siblings C2 and C3, who all got separated during early 2019.As a part of a long-term tiger monitoring and dispersal studies, C1 was radio-collared on March 27, 2019, by the team of WII, Dehradun."The purpose of the study was to monitor the dispersal pattern of the sub-adults which are normally in the process of exploring a new area to set up their territory. C3 was also radio-collared.?

After initial movements inside Tipeshwar, C3 and C1 started exploring adjoining Pandharkawda division and bordering Telangana."In mid-July, 2019, C3 migrated to Telangana and went very close up to Adilabad town, but instead of settling down there, the tiger returned back to Tipeshwar within about 10 days and settled now in Tipeshwar," said Ravikiran, Field Director, Pench Tiger Reserve.?

He said the C1 tiger had entered Adilabad division through Ambadi ghat and Kinwat forests after crossing the Pandharkawda division.It spent considerable time across inter-state forests of Adilabad and Nanded divisions during August and September. C1 subsequently entered Painganga sanctuary for a brief period. Afterwards, in October C1 moved out and went to Pusad division and then Isapur sanctuary.?

In the last week of October 2019, C1 entered Hingoli district of Marathwada.From Hingoli, C1 entered Washim district before reaching Buldhana late last month through Akola division."After reaching close to Chikhali and Khamgaon on December 1, the tiger has finally made its way into another well-managed Dnyanganga sanctuary," as per the release.Field Director, Melghat Tiger Reserve, MS Reddy has confirmed that the satellite location obtained is inside the Dnyanganga sanctuary, a well-managed wildlife area with a good prey base.?

The tiger is just about 50 km from Melghat landscape, Reddy said."It's worth noting that the tiger, while travelling more than 1,300 km and crossing hundreds of villages, agricultural fields and habitations in six districts in two states, never entered into any conflict with humans except the cattle kills that he made for survival."An isolated avoidable incidence occurred when villagers approached very close to the tiger in Hingoli district," said Ravikiran.?

The officer said dispersal of T1C1, T1C2, and T1C3 and the 2016 sub-adult tiger all across the landscape indicates that Tipeshwar is a potential source area and tigers need more space in the landscape.?

It also questions the source and sink model of conservation adopted traditionally in India, where it is believed that tigers leaving the protected areas are resulting in the sinking of the population as they won't survive outside the core areas.? ?