Semi-adult #tiger who left Panna Reserve returns after 10 months

Mail Today Bureau   |   Mail Today  |   Bhopal, January 3, 2015

The tiger was caught on film. After remaining elusive for the last 10 months, the Panna-123 is back to the Panna Tiger Reserve. The tiger, which is also known as P-123, had left the reserve in February of 2014 and thereafter the big cat could not be spotted. However, few days back a field staffer spotted P-123 in the reserve and the elusive animal was caught on film. Later, the pictures were matched with the tiger's photograph stocked in the library, and it was found that indeed P-123 was back to the Reserve.

Panna Tiger Reserve field director R. Sreenivasa Murthy told Mail Today: "P-123 was one of the six semi-adult tigers who went out from Panna Tiger Reserve after a sudden rainstorm hit the entire area in February 2014. After remaining elusive for 10 months, the tiger was spotted by the field staffer few days back and he was caught on film. When the recent photographs of the elusive animal were matched with the semi-adult library photographs of the tiger, we realised that it was in fact P-123".
"The return of P-123 means that the animals are safe," Murthy added.

A senior officer of the facility said, P-123 could not be traced for the past 10 months as it does not have a radio collar which is usually fixed on the big cats in the reserve. After P-123 went missing, the reserve staffers searched for the tiger but the animal could not be located. They believed that the tiger must have been roaming during the night and avoiding any contact with the humans during the day time.

One official told Mail Today that it was reported "the tiger inhabited in the Sangrampur Forest Circle of the Chhatarpur district in the state."

In early 2009, the reserve had lost all its tigers and a new group of big cats was subsequently introduced in the Reserve. With that the tiger population in the reserve increased from zero to nearly 30 animals.

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