Jai came to Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013. (Express Photo: Amrut Naik) Jai came to Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013. (Express Photo: Amrut Naik)

WHEN JAI arrived at the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013, it made big news — he had travelled 100 km over the course of one month in search of a mate, crossing rivers, farms and even National Highway 6.

Three years later, Jai, a 250-kg giant tiger and one of the most popular inhabitants of the reserve, has stirred passions yet again, but for the opposite reason — the six-year-old tiger has been missing since April 18. And in a first of its kind people’s movement, wildlife enthusiasts from NGOs, photographers, independent volunteers and guides have come together to launch one of the biggest tiger search operations.

Over 100 volunteers will scan forests around 350 villages in the vicinity of the sanctuary — from Bor in Wardha district to Brahmapuri in Chandrapur — as well as the New Nagzira Navegaon Tiger Reserve (NNTR), from where Jai had come to Umred in 2013. The Indian Express was the first to report about Jai’s arrival in the wildlife sanctuary.

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“We are mapping the whole area we plan to scan. We will form teams of two volunteers each that will take a local with them during the search. We plan to begin the search in two days,” Roheet Karoo, honorary wildlife warden of Nagpur district, told The Indian Express.

Karoo and his group had led the efforts to get sanctuary status for the Umred Karhandla forest in 2012. “This is the longest the tiger has not been seen by anyone. At one point last year, he was invisible for two months,” Karoo said.

Jai is believed to be the largest tiger in Vidarbha and one of the largest in the country. Generous in offering sightings to admirers, he is considered the virtual king of the landscape and has mated with several females, including four in the Umred Karhandla area.

He has fathered seven male and two female cubs in the area, all of them now in the sub-adulthood age of about two years. According to officials, the presence of a large number of males in the 189-sq km reserve may be the reason for Jai moving away.

Bilal Habib, an expert working with the Wildlife Institute of India, who had radio-collared Jai twice in December last year and in March this year, said, “Old tigers have to move out when new, young tigers start taking over. He is already six-seven years old. He will not be able to challenge seven young males,” Habib said.

“Tigers moving out to newer areas is a common occurrence. Jai may have moved to where we don’t have trap cameras installed. He has been seen physically only in Umred and Pavni, otherwise his presence was confirmed only by trap camera pictures, especially in Brahmapuri areas,” he said.

But Nitin Desai, central India director of the NGO, Wildlife Protection Society of India, said, “It is not possible for any of those new males to challenge this huge male in his prime. He is just six years old. He can continue to rule this area for a while.”

Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia, said, “Jai has performed the ‘vanish-and-reappear’ trick before. It is possible he will repeat the performance this time, too, with a new mate somewhere. It is heartening that local groups and individuals have added their strength to the hard-working officers and foot-soldiers of the Maharashtra Forest Department.”

The problem in tracking the animal became acute after his radio collar stopped functioning in April, almost immediately after it was re-fitted.

Meanwhile, his followers, which include cricketers and celebrities, are an anxious lot, sharing news of the missing tiger on Twitter and Facebook.

“What’s worrying is that there have been no complaints of cattle being killed, which would have suggested he is around,” said Karoo. “Of course, we have about 10,000 sq km of unprotected forests adjoining the protected ones in the area. It is possible he might have gone to a place like Gadchiroli,” he said, adding that the search will continue till they find the big cat.

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