Forest Department aborts rewilding of rescued tiger, shifts animal to Vandalur zoo

The Tamil Nadu Forest Department aborted its first ever attempt to rewild a rescued tiger and shifted the big cat to the Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur in Chennai.

Recently, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden (PCCF-cum-CWW) had informed the Madras High Court that the tiger code named ANM-T56, found abandoned in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) in September 2021, cannot be released into the wild due to prolonged captivity.

The PCCF-cum-CWW had also informed the court that the re-wilding of the rescued tiger was halted after a high powered committee chaired by PCCF (Project Tiger) Rakesh Kumar Dogra studied the animal and stated that it would not be advisable to release it into the wild.

Based on the counter affidavit submitted by the PCCF-cum-CWW before the court, in response to a petition filed by animal activist S. Muralidharan, the tiger was shifted to Vandalur zoo on Monday.

A specially-designed truck was brought to the open enclosure of the tiger at Manthirimattam in the core area of the ATR within the Manambolly forest range. The tiger was lured into a cage that was loaded onto the truck in the presence of officials, including Bhargava Teja, Deputy Director of the Pollachi Division of ATR.

Manambolly Forest Range Officer K. Giritharan said Veterinary Assistant Surgeon of Vandalur zoo K. Sridhar and Forest Veterinary Officer E. Vijayaraghavan from ATR accompanied the truck. The tiger was transported as per the standard operating procedure of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The tiger was rescued as a five to nine-month-old cub from a tea estate near Valparai in September 2021. The Department had been attempting to rewild the tiger, which had also lost one of its canines, by keeping it in an open enclosure of 10,000 square feet at Manthirimattam since June 2022.