Bareilly (UP) , June 6: Plans are afoot to set up a “rewilding” centre this financial year at the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve with an aim to alter the man-eating behaviour of tigers and leopards so that they do not attack people, officials said on Sunday.
“Wild animals normally maintain critical distance with humans and their habitation. Because of the landscape of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR), they are losing this critical distance with repeated chance encounters. So, we are trying to get these animals to maintain that distance,” PTR Deputy Director Naveen Khandelwal told PTI. Rewilding is a concept to reverse the behaviour of the tigers which normally reside in the close vicinity of human habitation, he elaborated. The aim is to reaccustom them with the wild habitat, Khandelwal said. Asked when the rewilding centre in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district would see the light of the day, Khandelwal said, “We are planning to complete this in this financial year only.”
Chief Conservator of Forests, Bareilly, said tigers and leopards, which move towards populated areas, will be tranquillised and brought to the rewilding centre and released there. (PTI)
