LUCKNOW: A curious contest between human wits and animal intelligence is on in the sugarcane fields and woods near Lucknow. Four teams of forest officials riding trained elephants have been tracking an elusive tiger that has strayed away from the Pilibhit reserve forest area, 350 km away. At the end of the sixth day of “Operation Tiger”, forest officials were clueless how or when the tiger would be hunted down.
“The job is becoming difficult with each passing day,” chief wildlife warden Mahendra Singh told DNA. “The dense fog is making our task tougher. We can’t start combing operations before 9 am,” he said. What is complicating matters are the rumours being spread by panic-stricken villagers about the tiger having killed somebody.
Apart from the four elephants brought in from the Dudhwa National Park for the combing operation, sniffer dogs have also been pressed into service to track down the smart cat. The tiger, aged about three, started its journey from the Pilibhit forest on November 9 and has been constantly on the move, covering at least 30 km every night.
But the good news for animal lovers is that the forest department brass have decided that the cat has to be caught alive. “We will not kill the tiger,” Mahendra Singh said flatly. “We have localised it and we are confident that we will be able to get to it without harming it. It might take time. But we will get him,” he said.
Experts say it is the “unpredictable” behaviour of the beast that has foxed forest officials completely. “Normally, tigers stay in the area where they make a kill, and return for a second helping. But this animal kills, eats some part of its prey and moves on. It never returns to the same area again,” says PP Singh, deputy director, Dudhwa National Park. “It is moving with extreme caution and all the time keeps itself hidden in the bushes. It’s just impossible to dart him,” he added.
A forest official involved in the search operation told DNA that the department’s ace shooters had missed it a number of times. Their job is compounded by dusk falling much earlier nowadays as darting cannot be done in the dark. (Darting is the process of getting the animal sub-conscious by hitting it with a dart which contains a sedative.)
Besides, the dart can only be hit at particular parts of the tiger’s body. Otherwise it may prove fatal.
Since the tiger has not made a kill in the past two days, foresters feel it would be hungry and would hunt very soon. That is the cue they are waiting for. But as of now, the cat seems to have outwitted the men on its heels.
