File picture of Nandankanan

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 6: The forest department has made it clear that the Royal Bengal tiger, which had strayed into Nandankanan zoo, would be freed in its natural habitat following the direction of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

Though the NTCA had recommended the state forest department to release the wild tiger in the Satakosia Tiger Reserve, the field director of Satkosia had expressed unwillingness to keep the tiger in the forest.

The field director of Satkosia shot off a letter to the chief wildlife warden last month expressing apprehension about the move to relocate the tiger in Satkosia citing lack of manpower. He also said that cyclone Phailin had uprooted more than 30,000 trees and this had damaged the tiger habitation.

But chief wildlife warden J.D. Sharma made it clear that if the tiger conservation authority directed them to release the tiger in Satkosia, they would abide by it.

“We are ready to release the tiger in any forest as directed by the NTCA. The final decision would only be made by the NTCA,” said Sharma.

The forest department is waiting for the final protocol of the NTCA to release the tiger.

File picture of the tiger caught on CCTV camera inside Nandankanan

Forest officials said the detailed protocol would reach them in another 10 days. The unwillingness of the officials of Satkosia has also irked wildlife activists.

“The forest department is getting crores of rupees for the development of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve. How can the Satkosia authorities express their unwillingness to keep the tiger?” said member secretary of People For Animal Sanjib Kumar Das.

Satkosia, which got the status of a tiger reserve in 2007, is spread over an area of 964sqkm with a core area of 524sqkm.

The six-year-old male tiger, which had been roaming around the zoo since March, had strayed into Nandankanan for the second time on June 23 after authorities had opened the emergency gate of 30-acre tiger safari to facilitate its entry.

The tiger had earlier escaped from an exhibit enclosure of Nandankanan zoo by scaling an 18 feet iron fence on May 31.