Bhopal: Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has directed for the translocation of 15 tigers from Madhya Pradesh to Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, an official said on Thursday.

As per the order, 12 tigresses and three tigers will be handed over to the three states after taking permission from the central government, he said.

No time period has been specified for the process of shifting the felines.

Under the process, the big cats will be translocated from the Bandhavgarh, Pench and Kanha tiger reserves in MP, the official said.

Six tigresses and two tigers will be translocated to Chhattisgarh, while Rajasthan will get four tigresses. Besides, a tiger and two tigresses will be sent to Odisha, he said.

CM Yadav has directed that the translocation process should be carried out under the supervision of an authorised veterinarian and to ensure the felines remain out of danger during the shifting procedure.

The states receiving the tigers will bear the entire cost of translocation, the official said.

As per the ‘Status of Tigers: Co-predators & Prey in India-2022’ report released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India, MP accounted for the highest number of 785 striped animals in the country, followed by Karnataka (563) and Uttarakhand (560).

Madhya Pradesh government recently notified Ratapani forest as the eighth tiger reserve of the state.

The NTCA has given approval to nine tiger reserves in the state. The state government is yet to notify Madhav National Park as a tiger reserve.

The other tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh are Kanha, Satpura, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Sanjay Dubri, Panna and Veerangana Durgavati.