Bhubaneswar: With the tiger relocation project recently getting the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)'s nod for resumption in Odisha's Satkosia Tiger Reserve, almost four and half years after the latter suspended it, the The Forest Department has formed a special tiger protection force (STPF) to step up protection efforts in the big cat habitat. 

Comprising 30 members including ex-servicemen, foresters and forest guards, the STPF is the second such force in the state. The measure comes ahead of the commencement of the big cat relocation. The team was formed as part of the action plan as per the NTCA guidelines to take on poachers, PCCF (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Susanta Nanda said.

Official sources said the protection squad will be attired in black uniform and well-equipped for round the clock patrolling. The members will not just carry out special operations to take on poachers but also work towards building and strengthening ground intelligence. 

As part of the project, as many as 15 big cats will be relocated to Satkosia in phases in five years from Maharashtra's Tadoba Reserve. 

Earlier, the tiger relocation project had failed to take off in Satkosia. 

In 2018, two tigers - Sundari and Mahavir - were brought to Satkosia from Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh as part of the country's first tiger translocation project. But the NTCA suspended it the following year with the death of Mahavir. Sundari was sent back to Kanha after spending 28 months in the reserve’s Raigoda enclosure. 

Following the indefinite suspension of the project, NTCA had listed 15 conditions for resumption of the translocation programme in Satkosia.

The approval for reintroduction of tigers in Satkosia was given aftera proposal was submitted by the State Government in January this year and an NTCA  team visited the reserve in June to assess the feasability of the project's re-initiation.