Nagpur: Even as the panic among villagers is on peak due to back-to-back tiger attacks, the Forest Department has decided to capture the problem tiger which has killed around seven persons in the last six months in the buffer and territorial areas of the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Maharashtra.
As per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) SOP, the Forest Department has constituted a committee to capture the problem tiger. However, wildlife experts believe that capturing the tiger is not the solution and the Department should work beyond this to curb man-animal conflict in the region.
The Forest Department is working on the photographs captured by camera traps in the forest area. A Rapid Rescue Team (RRT) from Tadoba, which has captured 65 tigers till now in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts, has landed in Pench to capture the big cat.
“Around 50 camera traps have been installed in the territorial area to monitor the problem tiger. Also, around 60 foresters are doing regular patrolling,” said an officer. Around seven persons were killed in tiger attacks in the last six months, in which two incidents took place in the buffer area of PTR, and two incidents occurred in the Deolapar area. All these four incidents in the buffer and Deolapar area took place in just two-and-a-half months.
“As per the photographs we are predicting that all the kills were committed by a sub-adult tiger which is frequently venturing in the forest fringes,” said the officer. According to the officer, “PTR Maharashtra is situated over 741.2 sq km area which can cater to around 50 tigers,whereas there are around 54 tigers residing in Pench. Excess tigers are venturing out to the territorial areas.”
“As per recent photographs, there are more than 10 sub-adult tigers which are residing in a territorial area, which is surrounded by many villages and agricultural lands. Shortage of space for tigers is a major reason behind increased man-animal conflict there,” he admitted. As per the NTCA SOP, after capturing the problem tiger the Forest Department will release it in the wild in the next few days if the big cat is healthy. Whereas, the tiger will do the same thing after releasing it in the wild as it gets accustomed to easy prey.
