The Central Zoo Authority has cautioned Odisha's Forest and Environment Department to consider provisions of the National Zoo Policy, 1998 before taking any decision to shift tigress 'Sundari' to the Nandankanan Zoological Park.
'Sundari' is to be shifted to Nandankanan Zoo as she had allegedly killed at least two persons in the Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray has said.
The Central Zoo Authority wrote to the Odisha government in response to a complaint filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey who termed the state's decision to transfer the tigress to Nandankanan Zoo as unlawful.
National Zoo Authority Member Secretary D N Singh in a letter to Odisha Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Sandeep Tripathy said, "Except for obtaining founder animals for approved breeding programme and infusion of new blood into inbred groups, no zoo can collect animals from the wild."
Tripathy had said that a high-level committee comprising experts from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Wildlife Institute of India and the state Forest and Environment Department will observe the behaviour of the tigress inside the enclosure at Raiguda for three days and then take a decision on its relocation.
Meanwhile, the forest officials have successfully tranquilised the tigress inside the Satkosia sanctuary.
'Sundari' was brought from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and released into the enclosure at Raiguda in the core area of the Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary on June 18. She was later released into the wild on August 18.
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