The Uttarakhand government has agreed to translocate four tigers to Rajasthan following a request from the authorities of the western state.

The process of selecting the tigers for relocation to Rajasthan has already begun, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Sameer Sinha told PTI on Saturday.

The tigers to be sent to Rajasthan will not be captured from the protected forest area but from the buffer zone, according to guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), he said

A similar request for the relocation of three tigers to Odisha has also been received and it is under consideration, Sinha said.

The requests from the Rajasthan and the Odisha governments for the translocation of tigers were received following the successful operation of the tiger relocation project in Uttarakhand under which four big cats were translocated from the Corbett Tiger Reserve to Rajaji Tiger Reserve, the official said.

A fifth tiger can be brought from Corbett to the Motichur range of Rajaji any day, he said.

Not only that, they have also sought our relocation skills, he added.

While the request from the Odisha government is still under consideration, the Uttarakhand government has permitted the Forest department to impart relocation skills to forest personnel in Rajasthan.