‘Animal that killed cow in MP’s Shajapur dist was tiger’

The Madhya Pradesh forest department on Wednesday said that the animal that killed a cow near Bangli village in Shajapur district on Monday is a tiger. Images of the tiger eating its kill have been captured in the camera set up by the forest department on Tuesday night near the kill.

The village is situated around 40 km away from Shajapur town.

This is for the first time that a tiger has been found in this area. Sometime back two cows had been killed in the same area and it is now being assumed that it was the same tiger which had killed these cows.

CCF Ujjain, PC Dubey said that it is usually the practice of any wild animal, specially tigers to return to their kill to eat the remaining portion. “The forest department had set up five cameras at a strategic location near the kill and also along its possible route on Tuesday and we can clearly see that it is a tiger that came back to eat its kill.”

Earlier, the forest department officials had said that looking at some of the pug marks that had been found, the animal on the prowl was a leopard. But now after it has been confirmed that it is a tiger, special arrangements are being made to capture the animal that has strayed so close to human habitation.

Bangli village is around 1 km away from the jungle and the forest department officials have told the villagers to be on the alert. Incharge DFO Rakesh Lahari said that they have told the villagers not to go outside their house to their fields after dusk and even in daytime they should go out in a group to work in the fields. He said the villages have also been advised to light fires outside their houses at night.

Dubey said that looking at the photographs it appears that it is the same male tiger that was seen earlier in Dewas jungles. “The tiger, which is a fully grown male around 8 to 10 year old crossed the Kalisindh river and came to Bangli village to make the kill. The jungles of Dewas are adjacent to the jungles near Bangli,” he said.