A young male tiger, who had taken refuge inside an abandoned rubber factory in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly was captured by a wildlife body...
A young male tiger, who had taken refuge inside an abandoned rubber factory in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly was captured by a wildlife body along with the state Forest Department. An operation to capture the wildcat was kicked off on April 22, soon after it was first spotted. The tiger was captured yesterday after the team attempted to tranquilize it at around 2 pm. "The tiger was wary and slightly agitated due to the presence of humans, which made the operation very challenging. Three doses of darts had to be shot to completely sedate the animal," WTI Veterinarian Dr. Reetika Maheshwari said. Weighing 172.45 kg on an empty stomach and aged around three to four years old, the young male had an injured right foreleg, the second claw had been ripped off and the wound was infected, and a puncture wound between the second and the third digits was also infected.
As a first step, camera traps were deployed across the premises of the abandoned building to understand the routine, movement patterns, and condition of the tiger. A WTI statement quoting Dr. PP Singh, Chief Conservator of Forests (Bareilly) and Field Director of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve said, "We wanted this tiger to be caught in a very scientific manner, so that it did not escape from the factory and enter a human habitation, potentially attacking people." Now home to herds of nilgai and blackbuck, the rubber factory was reportedly once Asia's largest, until it was abandoned in the 1980s following a legal dispute. The factory premises are a mosaic of water tanks, underground tunnels, warehouses for storing acid and buildings with up to 14 exits, all of which made the task of locating the tiger extremely challenging, the statement said.
"We wanted to understand the routine of the tiger, the exits, and entrances it uses, its habits, the areas where it would rest and finally where it slept. "The camera traps also told us of the abundant prey populations in the area. Finally, on May 2, we were able to identify a narrow tunnel where the tiger slept," said WTI Biologist Francis Ishmael. Given its injuries, the tiger's immediate release back into the wild could not be recommended, and it was decided that the animal would be temporarily moved to the Kanpur Zoo. "Although injured, the tiger did not attack any human and was surviving on natural prey in and around the rubber factory. Such cases outline the behavior of these elusive big cats who try to avoid human encounters and conflict situations as far as possible," Chatterjee said.
