5 Corbett tigers to be moved to Rajaji in relocation phase-2
The move forms the second phase of the rewilding project and follows the relocation of five tigers between 2020 and 2025, one of which gave birth to four cubs, two now living in the wild.
Rajaji Tiger Reserve, formed in 2015, spans around 820sqkm in the Shivalik foothills and is split by the Ganga into eastern and western zones. Until 2020, Western Rajaji had no breeding tigress, largely due to habitat fragmentation caused by NH-58 and the Haridwar–Dehradun railway line.
Principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden, Ranjan Mishra, said they had discussed the proposal with NTCA officials and would now seek formal clearance. "The status of clearances and specifications from NTCA will determine the next course of actions," he said.
Head of forest force and principal chief conservator of forests, Samir Sinha, said the relocated big cats from the first phase were adapting well.
"The movement of big cats indicates that wildlife corridors and forest stretches are connected, and it's encouraging to see that the newly constructed wildlife underpasses are facilitating animal movement," he said.
Officials expressed concern about forest patches around densely populated areas such as Rishikesh, Nepali Farm, and Buggawala, where people were not yet accustomed to coexisting with tigers. Forest officials in Uttar Pradesh were asked to install camera traps to study tiger dispersal trends and frame future conservation strategies.
They told their counterparts in Uttarakhand that the work would start after the forest fire season.
The first phase of relocation included enclosures and monitoring with radio collars and camera traps by teams from WWF-India, WII, and the forest department. Since then, tiger movement has also been recorded in the lower Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh.
A senior wildlife scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India reiterated the need for joint efforts by four states — Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Uttarakhand — to support the re-colonisation of tigers across the Western Himalayan foothills, which once had a thriving tiger population. Uttarakhand ranked third in the country with an estimated 560 tigers, as per the 2022 tiger estimation exercise by NTCA and Wildlife Institute of India.
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