Jumbo effort: Sulochana, Dyna to join search for Rehmankheda tiger
Elephants have been called from Dudhwa National Park; they will join search for the big cat from January 4
After over two weeks of futile efforts to trap the tiger in Rehmankheda, the forest team has included two new ‘experts’ to join the search operations.
The elephants Sulochana and Dyna will join search operation for the tiger in Rehmankheda on Saturday. These elephants reached Lucknow from Dudhwa National Park on Thursday late night and were given a day’s time to acclimatize.
“The elephants are in good health and fit to join our rescue operations,” said Sitanshu Pandey, divisional forest officer, Awadh Range.
Since December 14, the forest teams including field staff, tranqualising experts and veterinarians are chasing the tiger, but despite coming close to the wild cat it could not be tranqualised.
“The task gets easier while mounted on an elephant’s back. The elephant can move along bushes that are main hindrance in Rehmankheda when our teams move to tranqualise it,” said Sunil Chaudhary, head of forest force Uttar Pradesh.
On December 28, the tiger killed a bovine and ate portion of it. The carcass was kept under watch and a tranqualising team was deployed on a watch tower near the carcass.
In the morning around 4am on December 29, the tiger came again to eat the remaining carcass. But instead of appearing entirely, it crawled through the bushes as if it had sensed the human presence on the watch tower, and after eating some portion, it returned in the same crawling movement. The tranqualising team aimed at tiger but could not fire a dart as they needed the tiger to stand a bit before they could actually aim at a safe place on its body. This action would have been possible if the team had been seated on an elephant back.
“With these elephants we hope our rescue operation will get a fresh push,” said forest officer.
Caption: The elephants who will join rescue operation against tiger. Sourced picture