The Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) was the centre of all the buzz in the district on Saturday as it welcomed two tigresses from Brahmapuri Range of Chandrapur district. On the occasion, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests and Cultural Affairs, said, “Navegaon-Nagzira is suitable for tiger conservation. The two big cats were released here under the Conservation Translocation of Tigers Project with the objective of research, tourism, conservation and inbreeding. With the arrival of these tigresses, hopefully popularity of NNTR will grow further among the researchers and wildlife lovers.” Mungantiwar interacted with mediapersons after the release of one of the two tigresses in NNTR on Saturday. He said that tigers were found in 14 countries and India had the highest population of this beautiful feline. Further, Maharashtra has the most tigers in India.

“There were 190 tigers in Maharashtra 2014. The number went up to 312 in 2019 and now we have over 500 tigers. Vidarbha has the most number of tigers in Maharashtra and it means that Vidarbha is the Tiger Capital of the World,” he said. Government has approved the translocation of five tigers in the first phase and of which two tigresses were released in NNTR on May 20. Mungantiwar further informed that in coming days, three more tigers will be released in the NNTR. CCTV cameras have been installed in the reserve. The management has given training to 400 local youths and have appointed 100 ‘Waghmitras’. They will get an honorarium of Rs 2,000 for their work towards tiger conservation.

It may be mentioned here that the NNTR came into existence in December 2013 and it was the 46th Tiger Reserve of country and 5th of Maharashtra state with core area of 656.36 sqkms and 1241.24 sqkm buffer area. As a part of Conservation Translocation of Tigers programme translocation of 5 tigresses is proposed in NNTR and of them 2 were released on Saturday. Both tigresses were collared with GPS tracking and VHF. Minister Mungantiwar released the first tigress at around 12.20 pm near the Tiger Trail while the other was released in late noon hours.

MP Sunil Mendhe (Gondia – Bhandara), MP Ashok Nete (Gadchiroli – Chimur), MLA Vijay Rahangdale (Tirora), MLA Manohar Chandrikapure (Arjuni Morgaon), Chief Wildlife Warden Maheep Gupta, CCF Rangnath Naikade (Nagpur), Conservator of Forest and Filed Director Dr.Jitendra Ramgaonkar (TATR), DIG Sandeep Patil (Gadchiroli Range), Conservator of Forest and Field Director Jayarame Gowda R (NNTR), Deputy Conservator of Forest Rahul Gavai (Bhandara),Kulraj Singh (Gondia),Deepesh Malhotra (Bramhapuri), ASP Sushant Singh, RDC Smita Belpatre, Deputy Filed Director Pavan Jepf, Officiating DFO Pradeep Patil, ACF Rajendra Sadgir alongwith Honourary Wildlife Warden`s Sawan Bahekar, Mukund Dhurve (both Gondia), Shahid Pervez Khan ,Nadeem Khan (both Bhandara), WII`s BilalHabb,veternerian Dr. Ravikiran Khobragade, ex MLaRajesh Kashiwar, Ashok Lanje were prominent among those present.