PILIBHIT: Officials at Pilibhit forest and wildlife division on Saturday wrote to the UP chief wildlife warden Anajani Kumar Acharya seeking permission to tranquilise a stray tiger that frequents between Jamunia and Pipariya Santosh villages.
According to the authorities, the feline was spotted in a wheat field adjacent to a sugarcane field in Pipariya Santosh on Friday. A team of field forest force was deployed to monitor the big cat and prevent its movement towards habitation.
Pilibhit tiger reserve (PTR) officials have installed 10 camera traps at the fringe area of Mahof forest range adjoining Jamunia to monitor the movement of another stray tiger that probably killed a 45-year-old farmer, Om Prakash, on November 11.
Fear has gripped the area due to the incessant movement of the stray tigers in the area as harvesting of sugarcane is at its peak and irrigation in wheat fields is a necessity. “Despite our repeated requests to forest officials, the situation persists,” they alleged.
“We have traced pug marks of the tiger. We think it is a 3-year-old tigress. To prevent any untoward incident, we have requisitioned permission for tranquilising it for release in the wild,” said Piyush Mohan Shrivastav, the range officer concerned.
Meanwhile, divisional forest officer of PTR, Naveen Khandelwal, said, “We are collecting pictures of camera traps daily to ascertain the identity of the tiger involved in the recent killing and two earlier incidents in which two farmers were killed on July 15 and June 27, respectively, in Raniganj village.”
