Dummy tigress rears orphaned cubs in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: In a first of its kind conservation move, a dummy tigress has been created by the forest officers in Madhya Pradesh to save three cubs, orphaned by the death of their mother in a national park in the state recently.

“The dummy has literally been rearing the 40-day-old cubs. They are being fed by milk bottles fitted in the dummy. The cubs have also accepted it as their mother. The measure has helped increase the survival chance of the felines by 80  percent,” said Mudul Pathak,  director of Sanjay Gandhi National Park on Monday.

While two of them have gained strength to take hard food like meat, the third of the three siblings is still weak and survives on liquid food fed through the dummy. This was the first of its kind experiment in the country.

Death of female tiger, named T1, due to electrocution in Bandhavagarh Tiger Reserve in the state on January 21 had posed a challenge before the forest officials to save her three cubs.