Sundari, a tigress which had come from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh in June 2018, as part of the first inter-state tiger translocation project, was sent back on Tuesday evening after a trouble-torn stay for two years and nine months in Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Angul district of Odisha.

The tigress, who is now aged four-and-a-half years, was kept in a special enclosure at Raiguda in Satkosia forest for the last 30 months after it reportedly killed two persons in the area.

The Odisha government had brought Sundari along with another tiger Mahavir in 2018 from Madhya Pradesh to Satkosia to repopulate the big cat numbers as part of India’s first tiger translocation project. Both of them were released in the Satkosia tiger reserve. While Sundari was released in the wild at Satkosia in June 2018, followed by Mahavir a few days later.

Mahavir died after getting caught in a snare laid by the poachers in the forests on the fringes of Satkosia reserve a few months after his release in 2018.

The special van that carried Sundari to Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh Telegraph picture

Sundari, on the other hand, was in the news owing to her violent behaviour as she reportedly killed two persons. As the people living in and around Satkosia protested and even torched a beat house of the forest department in the area, Odisha forest officials confined the tigress in an enclosure in September 2018 after tranquillising her. In 2019, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) asked the Odisha government to send Sundari back to Madhya Pradesh.

As the issue snowballed into a major controversy and wildlife activists raised concern over the handling of the tigress, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in December 2020 urged his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik to ensure proper care of Sundari till her relocation.

A six-member team, including a veterinary surgeon, reached Satkosia earlier this week. On Tuesday, they tranquillised Sundari and put her in a cage. “It took only 15 minutes to tranquillise the tigress. Following this, the tigress began her journey back to Madhya Pradesh in a special van. The van is scheduled to reach Madhya Pradesh at night,” said Pradeep Raj Karata, Angul regional chief conservator of forests.

Till the work on the construction of tiger safaris at Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh is complete, Sundari will be temporarily sheltered at the Ghorela Rewilding Centre there.