KOLKATA: A tiger strayed into Kalitala village of the Shamshernagar area in North 24-Parganas on Sunday evening. It was spotted on a village path by three youths on a motorcycle. The petrified youths' scream for help and the headlight of the bike scared the big cat, which dived into the nearby river and swam to the forest.
Rampada Mondal (30) who was driving his bike along the pitched dark road got the shock of his life when the headlight fell on a tiger that was standing barely 7 feet ahead of them. He slammed the brake of his motorcycle. He and his two friends screamed with all their might. To their surprise, the tiger looked at them just once, dropped the dead dog it was carrying in its mouth and jumped into the Jhingakhali river.
According to villagers, the tiger then swam down the river for almost 5 kilometres before reaching the Kalindi and crossed over to the forest across the international border.
Locals in three villages under Kalitala-IV gram panchayat have been noticing pug marks in different areas of the river bank since Wednesday. They had contacted the forest department, which put up halogen lights in the three villages. Dhakis and fire crackers had been kept ready to scare away the animal if it entered any of the villages. Forest officials have been camping in the area with tranquillisers and cages, ready to trap the tiger. It was only on Sunday that the tiger was spotted.
Though the animal did not attack any human, some villagers reported that several cattleheads had been dragged away by the big cat in the past few days. "Two goats went missing from my cattle-shed on Sunday night. Blood spots were also found near the shed, suggesting that the tiger had dragged those away," said Prabash Mondal.
Just around two weeks ago, forest officials had trapped a tiger and left in the Sunderbans later. Another tiger had entered the village in May 2009. That time too, the injured male tiger was trapped by forest officials. It was treated and then left in the Sunderbans tiger reserve area few weeks later.
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