MP: Ranthambore's tiger spotted near Cheetah enclosures at Kuno, forest officials on toes

92Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh): It's a no-relief period for forest teams of Kuno National Park. After back-to-back incidents where Namibian Cheetahs fled the boundaries, now comes a Tiger...all the way from Rajasthan!

On Monday morning, a tiger-- that strayed 92 km away from Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve was spotted near the Cheetah enclosures at the Sheopur situated Kuno, keeping the foresters on toes.

Tiger T-136 was spotted in a range of just 15 km around the cheetah enclosures at Kuno.

Morawan beat forest ranger Virendra Punia said that the Forest Team has coordinated with Ranthambore officials and is looking for tiger pug marks. 

“Tribals living in the area gave information about a tiger last night. There is also information about the tiger attacking some cattles,” he said.

Currently, three cheetahs namely Gaurav, Shaurya and Asha are roaming outside the Kuno National Park area. Asha was last spotted in Vijaypur jungles, some 7 km outside Kuno.

What if cheetah and tiger come face to face?

Retired Indian Forest Service Officer and Pench Tiger Reserve director Ramgopal Soni said that if the cheetah and tiger come face to face, then it will be difficult for the cheetah to survive. 

He added, “Tiger is powerful, while the cheetah can only run to survive. Tiger cannot run as fast as the cheetah, so its only chance of survival is running.”