Nagpur: High drama prevailed in Aathmurdi village in the man-animal conflict zone of Pandharkawda forest division on Monday after problem tigress attacked a forest guard and charged on a vehicle in a ‘botched’ tranquillizing bid.
According to sources, the monitoring teams tracked the tigress in compartment number 155 in lantana bushes near Vedshi dam around 11am. Young wildlife veterinarian Dr Chetan Patond shot a dart from a tree after which the animal started walking and after 10 minutes was down.
Entire team was ready to capture the tigress assuming it was tranquillized. A vehicle reached the spot from front and one of the team members SM Rane, posted as a forest watcher with the special tiger protection force (STPF) at Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR), approached the animal from behind.
“Shockingly, within seconds the tigress stood up and charged at the forest vehicle and furiously turned back to attack Rane. But Rane threw a stick at the tigress to distract her and saved himself by climbing up the tree. In process he suffered minor injuries,” said eyewitnesses.
They said the tigress, which has two 5-month-old cubs, checked for them and later ran 1.5km towards Vedhsi lake waters and swam 500 metres across the water pool to reach other side of the lake bank.
Gajanan Bhongade, a villager, said the tigress also tried to attack vehicle of Pandharkawda deputy conservator of forests (DyCF) KM Abharna before entering an agriculture field.
“It came out of the waters in front of 300 villagers who had gathered at the spot. Efforts were also made to capture the tigress by pushing a JCB machine and ignite fire to scare her but all efforts went in vain,” said Bhongade.
Grappling with many probabilities and hostile area, this was the third unsuccessful attempt to capture the tigress. Earlier, the tigress twice gave a slip to tranquillizing teams in Borati nullah on April 9 and on April 11 near Anji lake.
DyCF Abharna confirmed the incident. She said, “The vet had prepared a dose of 4ml, which is sufficient for 120kg animal. The tigress may be around 150kg and hence the dose must have proved insufficient. Second dose could not be darted due to dense lantana.”
State’s chief wildlife warden AK Misra said, “All efforts are being taken to capture the tigress, and we are equally worried about man-animal conflict. The problem is that entire forest area there is barren and degraded, which is at the advantage of the tigress when it comes to capturing. There will always be a chance factor.”