More tiger births lit up hope in Ranthambore

JAIPUR: The Ranthambore National Park, which lost a few tigers recently due to deaths or straying away, seems to have got back the count with at least nine cubs being born in the park.
According to sources, since September last year, five cubs have been caught in camera while forest guards spotted two more tigress which are said to be in a lactating stage.
Last year, the park had seen atleast 10 tigers either straying away from it or dead in separate cases.
The new enthusiasm follows after a trap camera caught three offsprings with their parents recently in the Indala region of the park. Though the news of the birth of the cubs at the Indala region came sometime back, forest officials could not confirm it as no picture of the cubs was available. There was even confusion on the number of cubs.
"Now since we have clicked the pictures of the cubs, we are sure. It is not two but three cubs that have been born to the Indala tigress. However, as the picture of the mother is not clear, we are still unable to specify the tigress," said RN Mehrotra, head of forest forces (HoFF) and principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Rajasthan.
The birth of these three cubs takes the official figure of new borns at the national park to five with another tigress, T-13, having littered two cubs in September 2010. "So far, we can confirm the birth of atleast five cubs in the park," Mehrotra added.
However, sources said that there are four more cubs in separate areas in the park. "These four cubs are in two separate areas of the park. But there is no official confirmation on them as of now," the source said.
According to Rajpal Singh, member of the state wildlife board, "The Indala tigress is the same one that had given birth to three cubs in 2006. However, none of the cubs survived and died in accidents."
"On May 23, 2006, we suddenly got a news that three cubs had fallen into a dry well near the park. We hurried there and realised that only two were alive. One had died on the impact of the fall. We brought up the two cubs from the well. But one of them died during treatment while the third was given treatment and kept near the well. At night, the mother came and took away the cub. It was a very heart-rending sight as such cases are very rare where the mother takes away the cub the day it is rescued and treated," he said. However, eventually the cub also died.
As of now, forest officials are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that the tipoff of the forest guards proves true.