No tranquilizer or net: How forest dept rescued tiger cub that entered Odisha village

A tiger cub entering a village near Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve kept the residents in a state of suspense for 15 hours as it first walked into a cattle shed, went back into the woods, before returning a few hours later and spending the night inside an unoccupied house which the villagers had locked from outside.

The cub, said to be 7-8 months old, was rescued by forest officials on Friday morning. The cub first entered the cattle shed in Khaparkhai village in Thakurmunda Range of Karanjia Division on Thursday night. The village is adjacent to STR.

“On closer examination of the tiger cub, it was ascertained that it required veterinary care. The cub was rescued into a cage around 12pm,” STR field director Prakash Chand Gogineni told The Indian Express. Gogineni said the cub shall be taken to a larger enclosure, inside the core of Similipal, and shall be released back into the wild upon achieving enough fitness to hunt in the wild.

According to the villagers, the cub has been moving in the vicinity since 7 pm on Thursday. It initially entered an abandoned cattle shed before moving back towards the forest. The villagers then informed the forest department which sent over some of its personnel to keep a watch.

At 1pm, they spotted the tiger moving towards the habitation again and entering an unoccupied house. “Fearing safety of people, some alert villagers quickly shut the door and locked it from outside to prevent the cub from coming out,” said a villager.

The cub has not harmed any individual or animal in the village. On why the operation was not a simple one, forest officials said since the cub was very young and seemed unwell, it could not have been tranquilised. The forest officials put out a cage, tried to attract the cub towards it with the help of torchlight, and waited for it to walk into the enclosure.

According to Karanjia divisional forest officer Ajay Kumar Sahu, the Thakurmunda range office received information about movement of the big cat near the habitation following which forest staff were deputed in the village through the night.

While authorities are yet to ascertain why the cub moved out of the Similipal landscape, forest officials said the animal is too young to hunt on its own. Officials said the cub appears to be sick and may have entered the house in search of shelter.

According to experts, tiger cubs generally move with their mother for about 12 to 18 months before venturing out on their own. The Similipal Tiger Reserve sprawls across 845 square km in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district. It is Asia’s second largest biosphere, and the country's only wild habitat for melanistic royal Bengal tigers.

The tigers of Similipal belong to a unique lineage with higher-than-normal levels of melanin, which gives them black-and-yellow-interspersed stripes on their coats. Sujit Bisoyi is a Special Correspondent with the Indian Express and covers Odisha.

His interests are in politics, policy and people’s stories. He tweets at @bisoyisujit87 ... Read More