Tigress Jamuna healthy in Similipal: Official

Baripada (Odisha): The authorities of the Similipal Tiger Reserve Thursday said tigress Jamuna is healthy and hunted a wild boar in her enclosure.

The two-and-half-year-old tigress brought from Tadba tiger conservation project in Maharashtra on October 28 was released in a soft enclosure inside the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district. "The tigress Jamuna is healthy and active. It is relaxed and in good health. Yesterday it killed and ate a pig inside the enclosure," Prakash Chand Gogineni, field director of the tiger reserve here said.

The forest department is optimistic that this tiger will help in keeping the genetic diversity of tigers under control due to the increase in the number of tigers and especially the number of black tigers in Simlipal.

The forest officials said the tigress Jamuna is put in an enclosure and kept under observation for at least one to two weeks before its release into the wild.

The translocation of the tigress was done with the permission of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

Two felines from Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve will be released into STR and of those, one has already reached here, officials said.

With the arrival of the tigress in Similipal, the tiger population in the state has increased to 31, of which 28 are in STR. The STR has a unique population of melanistic tigers.