Tiger translocated from Kanha Tiger reserve to Satakosia

Satkosia Tiger Reserve is a

tiger reserve Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, protectin ...

located in the

Nayagarh district Nayagarh district is one of the 30 districts of Odisha state in eastern India. It was created in 1st April 1993 when the erstwhile Puri District was split into three distinct districts, namely Khordha, Nayagarh and Puri. The district is bord ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

covering an area of 988.30 km².

History

Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary was created in 1976, with an area of 796 km². Satkosia Tiger Reserve was designated in 2007, and comprises the Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary and the adjacent

Baisipalli Wildlife Sanctuary Baisipalli Wildlife Sanctuary was created on 6 May 1981 and is located in Nayagarh, Odisha, India, adjacent to the Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary. It is of sanctuary land, home to bear, elephant, leopard, sambar deer and spotted deer. The ...

Terrain

It is located where the

Mahanadi River The Mahanadi is a major river in East Central India. It drains an area of around and has a total length of . Mahanadi is also known for the Hirakud Dam. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and finally merged with Bay o ...

passes through a 22 km long gorge in the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

mountains.

Wildlife

The tiger reserve is located in the

Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests The Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests, presently known as East Deccan moist deciduous forests, is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in east-central India. The ecoregion covers an area of , extending across po ...

ecoregion.

Flora

The major plant communities are mixed deciduous forests including Sal ''(

Shorea robusta ''Shorea robusta'', the sal tree, sāla, shala, sakhua, or sarai, is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The tree is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and across the Himalayan regions . Evolution Fossil evidence from lig ...

)'', and riverine forest.Negi, Sharad Singh (1993). ''Biodiversity and Its Conservation in India''. Indus Books. p. 244.

Fauna

Mammals found include the

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

indian wild dog The Ussuri dholeHeptner, V. G. & Naumov, N. P. (1998). Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. II Part 1a, SIRENIA AND CARNIVORA (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears)', Science Publishers, Inc. USA., pp. 566–86, (''Cuon alpinus alpinus''), also known as the I ...

or the (

dhole The dhole (''Cuon alpinus''; ) is a canid native to Central, South, East and Southeast Asia. Other English names for the species include Asian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, red wolf, and mountain wolf. It ...

wild boars The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

, striped hyena,

sloth bear The sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus'') is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as Vulnerable species, vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss ...

leopard cat The leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') is a small wild cat native to continental South, Southeast, and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List as it is widely distributed although threatened by hab ...

and the jungle cat. The major herbivores include the

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus ''Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the no ...

which is found in large numbers and can often be seen crossing rivers. Spotted deer,

sambar deer The sambar (''Rusa unicolor'') is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe hunting, local ins ...

, barking deer, langurs,

porcupines Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizont ...

and pangolins are the other herbivores found here. The reptiles here include the

Mugger Crocodile The mugger crocodile (''Crocodylus palustris'') is a medium-sized broad- snouted crocodile, also known as mugger and marsh crocodile. It is native to freshwater habitats from southern Iran to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits marshes, ...

and

gharials Gavialidae is a family of large semiaquatic crocodilians with elongated, narrow snouts. Gavialidae consists of two living species, the gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus'') and the false gharial (''Tomistoma schlegelii''), both occurring in Asia. Man ...

. Other reptiles include the

indian python The Indian python (''Python molurus'') is a large python species native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is also known by the common names black-tailed python, Indian rock python, and Asian r ...

which can feed on large mammals like the spotted deer. The indian giant squirrel is also found here. This place also has many fishes like the cat fish which can have a weight of about 30 kilograms. Tigers are currently not here. The

National Tiger Conservation Authority The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was established in December 2005, following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, constituted by the Prime Minister of India for reorganised management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Re ...

, which had approved the transfer of six tigers from the wild of Madhya Pradesh's

Kanha National Park Kanha Tiger Reserve, also known as Kanha–Kisli National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two protected areas, Hallon and Banja ...

to Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha, has suspended the tiger translocation project pending a detailed review. The decision was taken after the first big cat, a male Royal Bengal tiger that had been translocated from Kanha tiger reserve in MP to Satkosia in Angul in June this year, was found dead in core area of the forest. The translocation program was suspended in 2019.

References

External links

*
orissalinks.com: Archive for the 'Satkosia gorge and tiger reserve' Category

telegraphindia.com: Nature spreads wings at Satkosia

sanctuaryasia.com: National Wildlife Week – Grim, Grimmer… Grimmest?
Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests Wildlife sanctuaries in Odisha Tiger reserves of India 1976 establishments in Orissa Protected areas established in 1976 Angul district {{India-protected-area-stub