  We investigate the dynamics of heavy inertial particles in a flow field due
to an isolated, non-axisymmetric vortex. For our study, we consider a canonical
elliptical vortex - the Kirchhoff vortex and its strained variant, the Kida
vortex. Contrary to the anticipated centrifugal dispersion of inertial
particles, which is typical in open vortical flows, we observe the clustering
of particles around co-rotating attractors near the Kirchhoff vortex due to its
non-axisymmetric nature. We analyze the inertia-modified stability
characteristics of the fixed points, highlighting how some of the fixed points
migrate in physical space, collide and then annihilate with increasing particle
inertia. The introduction of external straining, the Kida vortex being an
example, introduces chaotic tracer transport. Using a Melnikov analysis, we
show that particle inertia and external straining can compete, where chaotic
transport can be suppressed beyond a critical value of particle inertia.
