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Please Jai, can you roar just once? 10 NGOs join hands to track star tiger

10 NGOs join hands to track Maharashtra's star tiger, which is missing for three months now

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Jai has been missing for three months now (Image courtesy: Allen Jacob)
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Where is Jai? It's three months since the star tiger of the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary (UKWS) has gone missing. On Monday, around 10 NGOs have initiated a campaign called 'Finding Jai' from Monday.

The forest department has several theories about Jai's disappearance, like moving away to a new territory or being chased away by the increasing number of males. Wildlife activists, however, challenge the second claim saying that Jai was the most-dominating male.

"Tigers travel long distances and can remain elusive. At times, a lot of noise is made without understanding that," said a senior forest official from Nagpur.

But NGOs have a different worry. Jai is known to killing cattle, but in the three months not a single incident of cattle-killing has been reported from the villages.

The star tiger, known for its huge size, had people thronging the UKWS throughout 2015 and 2016 and was last spotted at Paoni on April 18 this year.

"We are now being told that the collar of Jai has developed a snag due to which his location cannot be tracked. Also, the forest department has not started tracking the tiger and hence we are worried about Jai. All like-minded NGOs have come together and initiated this campaign," said Roheet Karoo, Secretary of Wildlife Conservation and Development Centre (WLCDC) and Wildlife Warden.

Two meetings were held at Gothangaon and Paoni on Monday where strategies and action plans were discussed. "We will be forming teams which will fan out to different areas and gather information about Jai. We are also involving villagers to check if there have been any cattle death due to tiger attack," said Karoo.

Apart from organisations like SEAT, SEWA and CLAWS, the Guide and Gypsy Association from UKWS have come forward to join the campaign, citing that it was their time to do something for Jai, which helped them earn good revenue from tourists.

Teams have already started making maps and creating database of areas to be covered.

Sarosh Lodhi, wildlife photographer and founder of CLAWS, said: "This was a good move by Karoo to gather people together and start the campaign in an organised manner and everyone is ready to help get any information about Jai."

Karoo also said that they were planning a meeting with the forest department on Tuesday. "We will meet them and inform them about what we have done so far and even request them to join us so that we can get quick results," he said.

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