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Plan to relocate tigers from Nandankanan Park opposed

Along with talk of relocating the Royal Bengal Tigers from the overcrowded Nandankanan Park near Bhubaneswar, dissenting voices are also being heard.

The Nandankanan Surakhya Parishad, which has been agitating since the tragic death of 12 tigers demanding action against the guilty officials, on Tuesday said it would oppose any attempt to shift the tigers from the zoo.

"This is the best possible environment for the animals as the park is located inside a natural forest and it can be developed into a wildlife research centre. Effort should be made towards improving their living conditions," the NSP president Bijoy Kumar Patra said in a statement.

The NSP is a body comprising people from about fifty villages around the Nandankanan Park. The relocation theory was doing the rounds after P R Sinha, member secretary of the Central Zoo Authority and leader of the team of experts, which came to probe the deaths, expressed concern over the housing of 56 tigers in the park before the tragedy struck.

Meanwhile, a prominent wildlife activist suggested that a programme should be taken up to release young tigers bred in the zoos in the wild in a scientific manner.

In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Sushanta Kumar Das said a beginning could be made by releasing young tiger cubs and herbivores like deer and Sambar calves into the wild in a planned manner.

PTI

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