KOLKATA: The tigress that had strayed into a village at Mathurakhanda in the Sunderbans' Bally island on Wednesday was trapped and released on Friday afternoon. The six-year-old female had sneaked into the village and entered a house where it killed a goat. The big cat, however, couldn't be traced after that. Terrified villagers spent a sleepless night.
Pugmarks were detected near the forest at the edge of the village on Thursday afternoon. A forest department team put up a nylon net cordon and laid a trap-cage with a bait to catch the tigress.
Early on Friday morning, the tigress walked into it.
"The animal is healthy and it has been released at the Chamta 6 section of the forest, at least 110 km away from the Mathurakhanda village. It's unlikely that the tigress would stray again in the near future," said Anjan Guha, assistant field director, Sunderban Tiger Reserve.
The area where the straying happened falls within the core area of the forest. "We had to act promptly after the tiger became untraceable. It could have ben hiding in some village cowshed and attacked people. Fortunately, it went back into the neighbouring forest making it easy for us to trap it," added Guha.
