Six tiger cubs born at Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Madhya Pradesh has added another feather to its cap.

In a major boost to efforts to revive tiger population at PTR where the feline population had disappeared completely a few years ago – two translocated tigresses have given birth to three cubs each in their third litters.

PTR’s deputy director Vikram Singh Parihar spotted the hand-bred tigress named T4 feeding her three cubs on Saturday morning. T4 was translocated from the Kanha National Park (KNP) to Panna in March 2009. The tigress was a semi-wild one and had spent most of her time in Kanha inside an enclosure after being orphaned.

In November 2011, T4 had become the world's first hand-bred feline shifted to the wild, to spawn two cubs. The tigress was born in May 2006 in KNP and within days her mother had died. “It had abandoned its cubs born from the second litter in April this year,” PTR director RS Murthy told TOI.

T4 was then reared in an enclosure and fed by KNP. The semi-wild tigress was carted out to Panna and released into the wild in March 2011.

“There were apprehensions about its survival in the wild, but she picked up soon, going for kills in the deep forest, where it met a lone translocated tiger, and mated,” said PTR officials.

Earlier, two translocated tigresses had given birth to eight cubs at PTR, of which six had survived. “But both were wild tigresses, unlike hand-reared and shifted like T4,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, another tigress T2, shifted from KNP in 2009, has given birth to three cubs. This was its third litter. In February it had eaten the cub, born nine months ago.

With six cubs now, the big cat population in PTR has risen to 20. In early 2009, PTR had lost all its tigers and the big cats were subsequently reintroduced to revive their population.