Bareilly: Forest personnel managed to capture another big cat on the border of Katarniaghat and Singahi ranges of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Lakhimpur Kheri district, a day after catching the male tiger instead of the man-eater tigress.
Veterinarians are currently inspecting the second seized tiger, which is thought to be their conflict tigress. Orders had been issued for the tranquilization of the tigress.
Since 2020, 21 people have been killed in tiger attacks in the region, many of which have been ascribed to the now-captured tigress.
Dudhwa field director Sanjay Pathak stated, The first tiger was confirmed to be healthy and is now under our supervision. We compared the second large cat’s stripes to those in our database and discovered that it was the nine-year-old tigress we were hunting for. It has a fractured upper-lower canine on the left side of its mouth, indicating that it is unable to hunt and instead attacks humans . The area, which has a high tiger population, has reported more than 20 human murders by big cats in the last two years. The majority of the victims were presumed to have been murdered by a tigress seen on camera traps with her pups. Pathak stated that the decision to relocate the tigress to a zoo will be made by high officials after further investigation.
We will continue to monitor the region and send personnel for the next several days until we are certain that no other ‘large conflict-cat’ is active in this area. To safeguard people’s safety, efforts are being undertaken to educate them on the dos and don’ts, he added.
“Tigers become man-eaters when they are unable to hunt wild prey owing to deformities or injuries such as broken canines, wounded paws, or old age,” he explained. Pathak stated that more large cats had been spotted and captured on cameras in the vicinity, and that the operation would continue until the entire area was free of big cat horror. The operation will be terminated only if it is determined that tigers no longer pose a threat to the human population, he stated.
Residents of Majhra Purab, Khairatiya, and other villages breathed a sigh of relief as word circulated that the genuine tigress behind all the attacks had been apprehended. The majority of tiger attack victims were folks who went into the forests to pick grass or go fishing despite forest officials warning them about the presence of a tigress with cubs.
The forest department requested authorization to tranquillize the tiger only after the frequency of assaults increased and incidences were recorded from beyond the forest region. Akash Deep Badhawan, divisional forest officer (DFO), Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, stated that the tigress will most likely be sent to Gorakhpur Zoo because the Lucknow Zoo is at capacity.