BHUBANESWAR: The Forest department has formed a special tiger protection force (STPF) for the Satkosia tiger reserve to boost protection measures in the big cat habitat.
The second such force in the state, STPF has been formed as part of Satkosia’s commitment to enhance security measures ahead of resumption of the big cat translocation project in the protected area for which the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) gave its green signal recently.
The protection force has been formed as per the mandate of the NTCA to take on the poachers, said PCCF (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Susanta Nanda on Friday. The STPF comprises 30 members including ex-servicemen, foresters and forest guards.
Dressed in black uniform, the protection squad is well-equipped with arms and other gears required for round the clock patrolling. Apart from taking part in special operations against poachers, they will also operate in civil dress supporting and strengthening the ground intelligence and information network of Satkosia, said an official of Satkosia Wildlife Division.
“Their deployment will also addresses the current manpower crisis of Satkosia to some extent as the tiger reserve is currently grappling with nearly 50 per cent vacancies at the field level which is being managed through protection assistants,” he said.
However, forest officials said apart from improving protection measures, Satkosia is required to fulfil other conditions laid down by the NTCA to resume the big cat translocation project which was suspended for an indefinite period in 2019 following the death of tiger Mahavir and shifting of tigress Sundari to Madhya Pradesh. Both the big cats were brought to Satkosia from Kanha National Park under the country’s first tiger translocation project in 2018.
The NTCA has laid down 15 conditions for resumption of the translocation programme in Satkosia. As per the conditions, the project will be carried out with consent from the locals and their public representatives.
Besides, voluntary relocation by villages, prey augmentation, creation of inviolate space and capacity-building of staff are the other pre-requisites.