The first radio-collared tigress in the state that was rescued from an irrigation canal in Bhiwapur tahsil of Nagpur in October last year and released back in the wild in November after 45 days of captivity for treatment here,has been wandering on the edge of the forest for the past nearly 75 days before returning to the same part of the forest landscape after taking a 'U turn,travelling nearly 100 km. Interestingly,she has never had a clash with humans though she did cross many an agricultural field on the way. All along,however,she mostly preferred walking on the edge of the forest and didnt penetrate deeper into it. The three-year old tigress,popularly known as Tass tigress by the name of the place she was rescued from,has travelled right to the fringes of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) to come back. Experts attribute the wandering to a frantic search for territory. No tiger would love to wander if it were to have a secure territory of its own somewhere with a reasonably good prey base. If this tigress has not come to stay,it could mean she hasnt been able to find a foothold anywhere. Maybe because she didnt want to ruffle the feathers of other tigers who could be living somewhere close to where she walked, said Nitin Desai of Wildlife Protection Society of India. Wildlife biologist Vidya Athreya,who had put the radio-collar around the tigress neck,concurs. She could be searching for a place to settle down. She hasnt yet found one. And interestingly,she has been navigating through human landscapes without coming in clash with humans, she says. Man-tiger conflict expert Poonam Dhanwatey says,Maybe this whole round of area she has travelled is her territory. We should understand that she is living in a human-dominated landscape. So,she may have to be doing this due to unavailability of a fixed area as territory that tigers in protected areas (PAs) generally have. Any which way,it boils down to the fact that she has no availability of a stable,fixed,secure territory. Dhanwatey points out that time has come to understand and accept that tiger ecology in non-PAs is different than that of tigers in PAs and that the tigers in non-PAs are mostly living in stressful conditions.
