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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Tiger urine deters cats from straying near city

NAGPUR: This could just turn out to be a master stroke to ease if not solve man-animal conflict. In a novel experiment, the Nagpur forest division officials used urine of captive tigers in the city's Maharajbagh zoo and sprinkled it near the spots frequented by tigers in Ranmangli village, as close as 60km from Nagpur. The result: tigers have now stopped encroaching from the Bhiwapur forest range to the village.

It was the idea of Dr S S Bawaskar, a young veterinarian who has been with the Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth-owned city zoo for last eight years. Harried forest officials, who were ready to take any step to ensure that the conflict doesn't flare up, agreed to work on the suggestion.

The Ranmangli tigress, bearing two sub-adult cubs, had killed a woman last month. This was the first case of a human killed in the area. The thirsty wild cats were coming very close to the village for water causing panic among its residents. The forest officials were worried that the conflict area was so close to the city. N Rambabu, conservator of forests for Nagpur Division, says around 250 ml of urine of three female tigers at the zoo was collected and sprinkled at an orange orchard and other spots.

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