Two human kills in four days by a tiger, is not a common occurrence for Pilibhit forest officials in Uttar Pradesh. Hansraj, a 50-year farmer was the first to fall prey – while he had gone to irrigate his fields on late evening of on May 14. When he didn’t return home till late night, villagers, who went about searching for him found him dead and a full-grown tiger feeding on the body about 50 metres from his fields. They somehow, managed to shoo it away by making noise and flashing searchlights at it. By that time, it had eaten a large portion of the body. Hansraj’s field in Khutar area of Shahjahanpur district was barely 150 metres from the Pilibhitforest.
Just five days later, another person, 45-years old Ram Prasad, was killed by the tiger, again in Khutar range of Shahjahanpur district. This time the incident happened in broad day light – at 4 pm to be precise – with lots of people working in their nearby fields, who on watching the attack raised an alarm and make the tiger flee, leaving the body behind. The spot is again barely 200 metres from the Pilibhit forest.
Such incidents pose a dilemma before the forest officials, whether to outrightly declare it a man-eater or to wait further, track it down and assess further. With each passing day, with every next sighting of the tiger near human settlements, people’s anger starts rising. It often boils out of control if the tiger attacks humans any further. In this case, forest officials aren’t sure that both attacks were made by the same tiger or different tigers.
The situation has been acerbated by the fact that the incidents have taken place at the junction of borders of three districts – Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri and Shahjahanpur. While the human habitations fall in Shahjahanpur, the tiger belongs to Pilibhit forest. And the spot is hardly 4-5 kms from Kishangarh range of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. Shahjahanpur in any case, doesn’t have much of a forest.
Deputy Director of Dhudhwa Tiger Reserve, Mr Rengaraju T says the spot if too far from the core area of the Tiger Reserve for them to act. “In any case, Shahjahanpur falls under Bareilly forest range while Dudhwa and Kheri fall under the Lucknow range – having a different chain of command”, he said. The area is quite far from Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) as well. However, PTR officials are helping out Pilibhit social forestry officials in carrying out this operation.
Another disturbing trend being noticed is – frequent appearance of the tiger in the vicinity of the second kill. “The tiger was seen in the agricultural fields yesterday morning and then again in the evening. It was spotted again this morning, but this time it was seen entering the forest”, said Mr Manish Singh, PTR Director. Situation has been worsened by torrential rains and a hailstorm lashing the area today morning (May 21), washing away tiger’s pugmarks.
The forest officials are working on two possibilities. First – both the killings were accidental in nature as both farmers were sitting or crouching when the tiger attacked, taking them as its prey. If that was the case, it seems to have gone back to its natural habitat – the forest. It will be monitored and lured deeper inside the forests by using some baits. If it doesn’t return to human habitation, no further action will be required. And if does return, they are preparing a contingency plan.
The second possibility is that it has been debilitated for some reason and has been attacking the humans as they are easy prey. The contingency plan comes into play in this case as well. So, what is the contingency plan. “We have already set up about 20 camera traps in the tiger’s activity area to identify the culprit. If it has become a habitual man-eater, we will tranquilize and capture it”, Mr Bharath Kumar DK, DFO of Pilibhit Social Forestry area, told Indian Masterminds, leaderof this operation.
Couple of experienced veterinarians, having sizeable experience of tranquilising tigers, have already reached the spot. Necessary permission has already been granted by Chief Wildlife Warden, Uttar Pradesh. This area has a large number of tigers. Forest officials don’t want to sedate a wrong tiger.
Besides, forest officials have launched a massive awareness drive. “We are sensitising villagers to not venture out alone. We are making announcements. We are also arranging street plays on dos and don’t. Besides, we are clearing the bushes around the villagers so that the tiger may be sighted easily if ventures again towards human settlements”, Mr Bharat Kumar said.
