Tigress spotted with cubs in Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve: Official

Tigress T-124 (Riddhi) was spotted with her cubs on Wednesday morning in a camera trap in the Rajbag forest area under zone 3 of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR) in Rajasthan, said a senior forest official.

“She might have given birth to three cubs,” said the official.

RTR which spreads across a 1,334 square kilometre area is now the habitat of around 89 tigers. It is the third most congested habitat of felines in India after Uttarakhand’s Corbett National Park with 252 tigers and Assam’s Kaziranga National Park with 118 tigers.

Also Read: Rajasthan: NCTA approves relocation of tigresses from Ranthambore

Another Ranthambore tigress, T-117 delivered three cubs on April 15 in the Sarmathura forest area in the Dholpur district, which adjoins RTR, said the official, adding that T-117 with its male partner T-116 moved to the Dholpur area two years ago.

Rajasthan has presently four tiger reserves. Apart from RTR, which is the source population of tigers in the state, Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar, Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Kota, and Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve in Bundi are the habitat of Rajasthan’s big cats.

From 59 tigers in 2014, the current population of tigers in the reserves has reached around 116 among which over 75% belong to RTR.

Observing the increasing tiger population in RTR, the state forest department sent a proposal to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to develop the fifth tiger reserve in Rajasthan.

The proposal recommended developing the RTR’s adjoining parts of the Karauli and Dholpur forest areas as a tiger reserve which will be a 1058 square kilometre area with 368 square kilometre core forest area.