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Tiger takes the bait, but stays out of bounds
A tiger killed a buffalo calf near Rehmankheda; tranquilizing at night is prohibited. Forest officials amended baiting hours to ensure safe capture.
A tiger wandering in the outskirts of the state capital killed its bait, a buffalo calf, but it could not be rescued as tranquilising an animal at night was not allowed as per the rules, officials said. The incident has made the forest department amend the hours to place bait in an open field.
“A buffalo calf (which is called padwa locally) was killed around 9.30 pm on December 22. Our teams reached the spot, but tranquilising is not allowed at night,” Sitanshu Pandey, the divisional forest officer of Awadh Range, said on Monday.
This was the tiger’s third kill after reports of it prowling in Rehmankheda first came on December 14. Previously, it hunted a blue bull or nilgai and a bull. “The bull is half eaten. We are keeping a watch on the remains of the bull so that if the tiger comes back to its prey, then tranquilising it will be easy,” said Pandey.
After the calf’s killing, the forest department has now decided to place bait only between 4 am and 9 pm. This would ensure that when the tiger attacked the bait then teams would be ready to tranquilise it, officials hoped.
Two teams with tranquilising guns are stationed in Rehmankheda: one at a watch tower and the other in the village. The area where a bait is placed, the watch tower and the site where it hunted a bull have been announced ‘no-go zone’ for the locals. “This is because less human footfall will allow the tiger to move easily towards the carcass or bait,” said Pandey.
“Experts from Lucknow and other places have been called to Rehmankheda and our focus is now on the safe rescue of the wild cat. All the needed equipment for the transport and caging of the tiger is in Rehmankheda. The tiger first moved towards Sitapur and then came back roaming...it is still in Rehmankheda,” said Anuradha Vemuri, the chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh.
At the site where the calf was killed, another bait has been placed. It is after a gap of 12 years that a tiger has come to Rehmankheda and is roaming in the area. The location is near Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture.
Once rescued, the tiger will be taken for health evaluation and then a decision on whether to release it in a forest or a zoo will be taken.
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