Strayed Bengal Tiger joins its family; district recalls three days of thrills and spills

Sagar Suraj

MOTIHARI: The sightings of big cat have always cowers people in fear and the very panic was generated right after a tigress- being strayed from Valminagar Tiger Reserve (VTR) about 130 km from here first spotted in a maize field near Pakadidyal in East Champaran district in Bihar.

The big cat, which stays in the district for more than 60 hours, made citizens sensate the reason why people of the district are missing this Bengal Tiger presence, after its safe rescue and return to VTR-its home turf. The forest officials as well as District administration both did commendable job in ensuring safe rescue and avert probable man- animal fight.

Forest official released a video of Tiger being freed in Harnatarh forest range in West champaran on Friday and the views of the majestic run of ‘Big Cat’ while returning home forced denizens to recall the presence of a short time but ‘rare guest’ with whome district spend sixty hours of thrills and spills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXBfAQ_tTYI

Ever escalating curiosity to become aware of every movements and locations of this magnificent Animal even by common citizens, who use to call in BNM office in the course of rescue operation, was a rare experience for news man. After arrival of this guest, spot lights was shifted from pandemic to Tiger its rescue and its footsteps.  “Yes, we are missing this guest though unwanted, thanks administration for its safe rescue”, said Mohan Singh, a native of Madhubani village.

He said, “With the tiger returning to its home, villagers heaved a sigh of relief. We are in a state of the combination of fear and curiosity. Fear- because Animal may attack any villagers as it was hungry for the last five days as forest officials informed. We are now missing the tiger because it was not a ‘man eater’. The way village children were chasing the tiger and the tiger cowering in fear, desperately trying to save itself from naughty village youth hiding in bushes were evident that this big cat had never tasted human blood yet.

Showing his heebie jeebies on danger related to the Bengal tiger, whose numbers are diminishing fast, he asked why tigers keep straying into villages from VTR? .  

When reached, a forest official underlines rising water lever in their home turf, territorial fights, prey scarcity, old age blunting of their hunting skills- the reasons of their time and again strays. If VTR-  a home to 45 tigers and 150 leopards has indeed prey scarcity, how worrying this is ?, he quipped.

Talking about the behaviors of Bengal Tiger, he said it behaves differently from their brethren in other turf. Being smaller and more agile and more adaptive too in comparison to their counterparts, traits makes Bengal tiger distinctive from its other brethren. Being more cunning and ferocious – obviously a deadly combination of Bengal tiger turns man eater so frequently, he said.

Notably, this is not the first instance of straying a tiger into far flung areas from its actual turf in VTR . Last year, a leopard had seemed to have walked its way up to 300 kilometers from the forest  of Valmiki Nagar Tiger Reserve through the Gandak river to the Vaishali district during the last lock town.

Divisional forest officer (DFO) Prabhakar Jha said that the tiger caught in Chiraiya locality is healthy and has been released in division two of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR), in West Champaran, the lone tiger reserve in Bihar. After the rescue, a team of veterinary doctors declared the tiger’s good health. ‘Tiger trapped with shots with adequate doses of tranquilizer gun’, he said.