A tiger, which was rescued by the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) staff as a five-month-old cub from a tea estate near Valparai in September last year, was released into a large enclosure on Sunday as part of Tamil Nadu’s first tiger rewilding programme.
The tiger, now aged around 13 months and weighing nearly 120 kg, was shifted from the cage to the open enclosure of 10,000 square feet at Manthirimattam in the core area of the ATR within the Manambolly forest range. The enclosure, with fencing, surveillance cameras and a watch tower, has facilities such as a den and watering hole.
ATR Field Director S. Ramasubramanian said Dr. Ramesh from the Wildlife Institute of India and a team of veterinarians would monitor the developments in the enclosure.
“The future plan is to empower the tiger to hunt on its own and make it ready for jungle life,” he said. The entire rewilding programme was done in accordance with the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
The tiger was released into the open enclosure after it was sheltered in a large cage for around eight months. An injury caused by a porcupine quill when it was rescued in ailing condition was also treated. In the cage, the tiger was given beef, live chicken, rabbit and fresh carcasses of a few wild animals, like deer, that were killed in road accidents.
According to ATR Deputy Field Director M.G. Ganesan, small preys would be released into the enclosure for the tiger to learn hunting after it accustomed itself to the new shelter.
ATR authorities also plan to lure wild animals like deer and wild boar into the enclosure using Boma technique, a method followed in Africa. Manthirimattam is in a shola forest region where animals that tigers normally hunt, such as spotted deer, sambar, mouse deer and wild boar, are abundant.
Veterinarians Vijaya Raghavan of the ATR, Sridhar of Arignar Anna Zoological Park, A. Sukumar of Coimbatore and Manoharan of the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve collected samples and took biometric measurements before the release.
Manambolly forest range officer A. Manikandan and his team will monitor the tiger using the surveillance cameras and ‘machan’ (a raised platform).
