BHUBANESWAR: A group of 13 villagers along with a team of five officials of Satkotia Tiger Reserve (STR) in Odisha visited Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh recently to understand how locals around the tiger reserve are co-existing with the wild animals.
The villagers residing on the fringes of Satkosia completed their four-day tour on Friday. Sources said authorities of STR arranged the tour for the villagers on the suggestion of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) that seeks cooperation from locals for successful implementation of the tiger translocation programme between Madhya Pradesh and Odisha taken up last year.
Wildlife officials said Pilibhit TR, that used to report a record number of men-tiger conflicts during 2011-12, has now become an example of how locals and tiger co-habitat in and around the reserve.
The villagers also visited Jim Corbett National Park to understand how they can benefit from the eco-development projects taking place around them.
Resistance from locals residing in fringe areas of Satkosia has emerged as the biggest challenge for the State forest and wildlife authorities to execute the big cat reintroduction programme in Odisha.
Roaming of the two translocated tigers - Mahavir and Sundari - close to human habitations led to serious conflict between the villagers and forest officials last year. Locals living in nearby villages fiercely opposed the relocation of the big cats in the Satkosia forest from Madhya Pradesh.
Panic also gripped villagers with Sundari allegedly killing two persons.
Since then Sundari has been brought back to the enclosure at Raigoda where she had been kept till August 17 after being brought from Bandhavgarh. The other tiger Mahaveer’s carcass was found on November 15.