Tiger who killed Pilibhit woman released in Dudhwa
LAKHIMPUR KHERI: A tiger, which recently killed a 22-year-old woman in a Pilibhit village, was successfully released inside Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on Friday, an official said.
Deputy director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Mahavir Kaujlagi, said, “The release of this tiger is a major milestone in tiger conservation. It is rare for such tigers to get a second chance to live in their natural habitat.”
“A radio-collar has been placed on the tiger’s neck to monitor how the animal adapts to its habitat. The data received through the satellite collar will give vital insight into the rehabilitated tiger’s habitat adaptation,” he added. ‘Chandu’, the tiger which strayed from the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, had killed a 22-year woman Girija Devi at Chandupur village of Puranpur tehsil in Pilibhit on March 5.
According to the officials, the tiger has been relocated in Belrayan Range of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, about 100 km from the Pilibhit region. Its new habitat, officials said, was chosen carefully as the area has less tiger density, and high prey-base.
This is the second time in the history of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve that a rogue tiger has been rehabilitated in the wild, instead of being sent to a zoo, officials said. Earlier, in April 2014, another tiger Rahman was captured in the Rahmankheda area of Lucknow and rehabilitated in the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
“Dudhwa is one of the safest reserves for tigers and now, after the 2014 case, it’s also emerging as a rehabilitation haven,” Kaujlagi said. The forest communities in the Terai region are the most vulnerable to fatal attacks from the big cats. As many as five deaths in just over two months of 2018 have caused panic among residents in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve area.
The region, infamous for the highest number of man-animal conflicts, had witnessed 21 tragic deaths in 2017. In the present case, the tiger was tranquilised the day after it killed the woman.
The tiger had take refuge in an agricultural field just near the village where it killed its last victim. It was intercepted and sedated by a five member team in a daunting operation. It has now been learnt that although the tiger killed the woman “out of hunger”, it did not eat the carcass.
“Therefore, the tiger is not a man-eater, it has no deformity which makes it the most suitable for rehabilitation,” Dr Mayukh Chatterjee, head of WTI’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation division, said.