Sariska Tiger Reserve Got a New Male Tiger

On 20th July 2010 a male tiger was shifted from Ranthambhore tiger reserve to Sariska tiger reserve. Selection of the tiger was done after an analysis of his DNA was done to avoid any genetic incompatibility which was causing difficulty in relocation programme of the tigers. Two of the twelve tigers’ samples which were sent for DNA analysis came out positive. A female tigress is also scheduled to be moved there within the next few weeks. Sariska Tiger reserve and Ranthambhore Tiger reserves are in Rajsthan.
The Sariska tiger reserve lost its last tigers in the years 2004 and 2005 due to large scale poaching. Now to start the tiger population once again in the reserve it is needed to shift tigers from other reserves. In 2008 and then in 2009 three tigers, a male and two females were relocated to Sariska so that they could mate and produce off springs. However, these moves failed to have any off springs and it was later discovered that the male tiger and female tigers were siblings.
The DNA analysis is done by Uma Ramkrishnan of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research based in Bangalore.
It happened in India for the first time that genetic studies were carried out to identify tigers fit for translocation.
Until now normal field level analysis was done which was not adequate to deal with the above mentioned problem.