Prowling big cat remains elusive even after a month

TNN | Feb 2, 2012, 05.06AM IST LUCKNOW: A month has finished since the forest officials began efforts to trap the prowling tiger in Kakori. However, no success has come their way yet. The forest officials are still camping in the area. The department is being assisted by a team from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) as well. The WTI team had joined the operation on January 10 to provide technical assistance to the forest department to trap the tiger. However, neither department nor WTI team has been able to locate the tiger. The sources in the department claim that it has cost government a good amount of money already. "And an additional amount has been asked for too," said sources. The last kill made by the tiger, about two days back, was located 2 km away from the CISH campus, where the tiger had taken refuge for the last 20 days or so. It indicated that the feline could have moved away from the spot. On Wednesday, however, the forest department could not find out the current location of the big cat. The department has planned to lay one big net to trap the wandering tiger, as enclosures have proved to be almost futile. The enclosures have been put at the same place where the tiger had killed a blue bull, inside the CISH campus. "We had set up a 'machaan' also but the tiger did not come out of the dense cover. It had instead dragged the kill inside the forest area," said a forest official in Kakori. The tiger is believed to have strayed from south Kheri and covered more than 250 km, to have reached its present location. The operation seems to be heading the same way, as the one in 2009, in which a stray tigress from Pilibhit was shot dead, after forest department failed to trap it safely. Meanwhile, the change of guard at the forest department might give the operation a fresh lease of life. Chief wildlife warden (CWW) B K Patnaik retired on Tuesday. Mohammad Ehsan has taken the charge of CWW now. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Prowling-big-cat-remains-elusive-even-after-a-month/articleshow/11721472.cms