BAREILLY: There's growing panic in western Uttar Pradesh districts abutting the Corbett
landscape, where forest officials say four tigers have strayed into
human habitats, including a 'maneater' tigress said to have killed eight
persons since late December.
With so many stray big cats in the area, forest authorities are treading with caution, wary of shooting the wrong tiger.Officials said villagers have spotted three different tigers during the past week, besides the 'maneater'. At Bijnor's Kalagarh tehsil, a tiger and a tigress killed a buffalo on Thursday evening. Around the same time, another tigress in Kalagarh chased a biker. "Except for one of these tigers, the rest have only been attacking animals. This means there is only one maneater. However, the emergence of so many tigers has become a big problem for us," said Salil Shukla, sub-divisional forest officer, Bijnor division.
With so many stray big cats in the area, forest authorities are treading with caution, wary of shooting the wrong tiger.Officials said villagers have spotted three different tigers during the past week, besides the 'maneater'. At Bijnor's Kalagarh tehsil, a tiger and a tigress killed a buffalo on Thursday evening. Around the same time, another tigress in Kalagarh chased a biker. "Except for one of these tigers, the rest have only been attacking animals. This means there is only one maneater. However, the emergence of so many tigers has become a big problem for us," said Salil Shukla, sub-divisional forest officer, Bijnor division.
"We are trying to tranquilize the tigers and have placed several cages with meat in the forest," he added.The UP forest department
had issued shooting permits to six shooters on January 11 and 14 to
kill the tigress after it was declared a maneater. The tigress possibly
strayed into human habitation from Amaangarh forest area.
It's a sugarcane belt which gives the predator a perfect cover. "We do
not know in which direction the cat is moving. However, we will trap her
soon," said B C Brahma, divisional forest officer, Moradabad.
Among the precautions being taken, Brahma said the shooters are not allowed to kill a tiger at night. Meanwhile, there's terror in the area. "We have advised villagers to work in groups and light fires to scare away the tigress," said Dharam Singh Yadav, DFO, Bareilly division.
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