This civilian troika helped track the tiger

Vadodara: When the forest department decided to launch a hunt for the tiger in Lunawada taluka, this trio was the first to get a call for help. Manoj Thakar from Vadodara, Vickey Chauhan from Ahmedabad and Ketan Chauhan from Dahod were the only civilians involved in tracking the tiger.
And, their joy knew no bounds when they finally captured the tiger’s images by trap cameras in Santrampur taluka. “We have been involved in wildlife rescues so we understand the wild animals’ behaviour and traits. So the forest officials decided to involve us in the search to track the tiger at the earliest. The wild cat seldom stay at one place for a long time,” Manoj told TOI.

When asked about the experience, Manoj said that it was a tough exercise. “We had tracked lions and leopards but never a tiger in last few decades. So it was bit difficult to trace the tiger by following its pugmarks. Still, our team including two forest officials managed to capture the tiger’s photos within three days of the search. The Madhya Pradesh forest officials had been looking for the tiger for last one year after it received information of its presence,” Manoj said.

“The entire exercise was very thrilling. We even managed to see pugmarks of a leopard and the tiger together. The presence of a tiger in the land of lions is exciting,” Vickey Chauhan said. The forest officials have kept seven trap cameras in different spots in the forests of Santrampur to track the tiger’s movements.