They were just three months old when the twin tigresses lost their mother. Raised by their unusually caring father, the ladies have come a long way quite literally by leaving their birth place Ranthambore and now beginning a new life in the jungles of Sariska after the forest department trans-located the two this week.
Christened Beena-1 and Beena-2, the twin sisters’ story is not unlike a movie drama.
The cubs were born in Ranthambore National Park of Rajasthan. Unfortunately, their mother died leaving the two cubs almost orphaned in the wild, as it is not the father’s duty to raise a tiger cub in the wild.
But baffling the park rangers and experts, Dollar (T-25) began ‘mothering’ his little girls. For the last two years, Dollar has been taking care of their needs, ensuring that they learn every lesson crucial for their survival in the deep forests.
Writes Julian Matthews, founder of Tiger Nation,
“Since February 2011, when only four months old, their mother died from haemorrhaging, yet their father has brought them up effectively as ‘mother’, guarding, teaching, feeding and guiding them to maturity – astounding all who watched – for his caring and studious approach to motherhood. This by a rough-tough alpha male of a father.”
New Life
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) gave the permission recently to move these young princesses to Sariska, as a bid to raise the tiger population of this park to nine.
Those who follow tiger news will remember how Sariska lost all its tigers to poaching but is now beginning to resurrect itself as a tiger habitat. The last tiger, a male ST-6, was relocated to Sariska on February 23, 2011.
Wildlife and forest officials tranquilized Beena 1 and fixed a satellite collar in Ranthambhore before she was released at Sariska on Tuesday.
Officials of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, managed to tranquilize the tigress at 7.23 am sharp.
“We were hopeful that we will also be able to catch her sibling as the duo always stay together. But that was not to be. We waited for about three hours but as we were not able to tranquilize the other tigress we decided to proceed with the relocation of just one tigress today.
On Wednesday though Beena-2 was also on her way to her new home.
The rangers are fearful though about how the two will adjust away from their protected lives in Ranthambore.
The field staff used to place smaller animals as bait and help the tigresses hunt down their prey in Ranthambore. Some say they had got so used to human presence, that the two would often come close to vehicles thinking they were being given more animal bait.
Their “human ways” were accepted in Ranthambhore, but that may not be the case in Sariska, which has two well-populated villages – Haripura and Kundalka – 4km and 3km from the closure where Bina-I is being kept till she acclimatises to her new environment. Wildlife enthusiast Dhirendra Godha pointed out that the tigress will now be exposed to “dangerous cattle” in the villages near Sariska, reports the Daily Mail.
But Beena-1 did successfully hunt a boar hours after landing in her new habitat so the prospects seem good.
With new beginnings in the first month of the year, hopefully, 2013 will bring plenty of good news about tigers from Sariska and India.
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That was such a Bollywood type story, Atula! So these things do happen with animals too. I am glad that Sariska will have some tigers. We have gone there so many times and been conned by the guides about kills and footprints, which were incidentally made by them using a pawlike contraption!
o yes, Zephyr. I know that trick all too well…:) In corbett, sasan gir, have experienced the same thing. But it is great news that Sariska is beginning to regain its lost glory. Breaking news is that another tiger in Sariska is pregnant…:) So more good news to follow soon.
unusually caring father,, rightly said it is a rare thing among tigers. I remember B-2, the famous tiger from Bandhavgarh who is the most photographed tiger of the world, was an unusually caring father. Nice post Atula… May god give these tigress the strength to survive in this cruel world.
Sariska is beginning to get back its charm and the twins will hopefully prosper and bring more tigers to the world in this new forest. Thank you for your comment.