New Delhi, July 4: A new tigress arrived at Sariska tiger reserve on Friday. The three-year-old, 170-kg animal was airlifted from Ranthambore tiger reserve, and was brought in the hope that she will form one half of a breeding pair, the reserve’s first in the past three years. Her male counterpart, around four years old, was brought to Sariska, also from Ranthambore, last Saturday.

The satellite-collared tigress will be kept in a 1-hectare enclosure, before she is released into the wilds. Her future mate—as it is hope—is still housed in an adjoining enclosure. Their translocation is part of a long-term plan to repopulate Sariska, which lost all its tigers to poachers in 2004.

The tigress, who had her territory near High Point in Ranthambore, is the progeny of one of the reserve’s most prolifically breeding tigress—s¿she recently gave birth to a litter of three female cubs.

“This is a happy moment. We are trying this for the first time and specifically to re-populate and actively manage Sariska,” said Qamar Qureishi, part of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) team that caught and satellite-collared the tigress.”We wanted to airlift her yesterday but could not as it was raining,” he added.

Other than Qureishi, the chopper also had WII specialist Parag Nigam, NTCA member-secretary Rajesh Gopal, Special Empowered Committee chairman V P Singh and assistant conservator of forests Parvesh Chandra.

Experts say this is the perfect tigress for breeding. “An older tigress would have had a more established territory and moving her would mean ousting her. This would also create havoc as other tigers would have fought for her territory. Also, a tigress who had already had her cubs would have always pined for her children. A tigress who has never had a litter is the best bet,” says Belinda Wright, member, Special Empowered Committee, Rajasthan.

Both enclosures have langur, peafowl and goats inside them for the big cats to feed on. Though the WII had said they would release the first tiger as soon as possible, no clarity has been achieved on when this will be done, or whether the animals will be released together. WII scientists say that they are still observing the first tiger and giving him a chance to settle down.

Tigers and tigresses both establish separate territories and are solitary animals. It is still unknown how these two immigrants from Ranthambore will react to each other.

Meanwhile, the Sariska experiment is going to be crucial for other tiger relocations the Centre is planning.

“We would like to relocate tigresses in Panna reserve as the population ratio of tigers to tigresses has become skewed. A viable population should have more tigresses than tigers. We also are planning to move prey populations to tiger reserves Simlipal, Buxa, Valmiki, Palamau and Manas,” says Rajesh Gopal, member-secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority. “We are collecting never before made observations and compiling our knowledge of the tiger in Sariska,” Qureishi says.