CHANDRAPUR: The dreaded tiger of Rajura — identified as RT-1 and blamed for eight human kills — was finally trapped in an ingeniously-designed cage in a narrow culvert under a railway bridge near Sindi village in Rajura and Virur forest reserves of Chanda forest division on Tuesday afternoon.
The tiger was moved to Chandrapur transit treatment centre and is likely to be moved to Gorewada zoo in Nagpur later in the night.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has lauded the forest officials for capturing the tiger alive.
Operation in-charge, DCF, central Chanda forest division, Arvind Mundhe, informed the teams had designed an automated cage under railway line culvert, which was regular route of the problem tiger in compartment no. 179. “There were actually two routes used by the tiger. We closed down the other route, while activating this special cage after the feline had managed to escape the culvert-turned-trap in compartment no. 170 a few days back,” Mundhe told TOI.
He informed that the culvert was 4.5 feet wide and had both sides open. The trap doors were designed in such a manner that both the gates drop simultaneously after pressure mechanism placed in the centre of the 9.1-meter-long culvert is activated. The iron bar doors were concealed from inside with plywood following the recent escape of the tiger from the cage. Foresters were deployed on a camouflaged machan over a tree around 30 meters away to monitor the cage.
“The monitoring team alerted the higher-ups immediately after the tiger got captured in culvert-cum-cage. A tranquillizing team, headed by vet Dr Kundan Podshelwar, rushed to the spot and shot the tiger with a sedative dart from the slit in the upper side of the trap door,” Mundhe explained. He claimed no bait was placed inside the cage considering the cunning nature of the tiger. The team was relying on natural instincts of the tiger to pass along its regular trail and the strategy paid off, said a relieved Mundhe.
The beast had eluded the hunting teams of forest department for almost eight months. After successive kills for over one year, forest department had issued capturing orders on February 14. The beast had killed over 25 baits laid to lure it, but every time it managed to give a slip to the hunting teams. The efforts to trap the beast in trenches and pits too had failed.
The feline had recently got trapped in a specially-designed cage in a culvert in compartment no. 170 of Rajura range, but had managed to break free with sheer might.
CCF, Chandrapur, NR Pravin claimed it is a full grown tiger aged around 6 years. It was responsible for eight human kills and mauling of three other people. The tiger was moving in over 20 square kilometres territory and had terrorized dozens of villages. Four tracking teams of STPF jawans and seasoned trackers from villages were on its trail since February this year. “It was very cunning beast and had eluded our every trap. The feline’s movement was mostly during the night and it avoided going near its cattle kills,” he said explaining the delay.
There was tremendous pressure on the forest department to capture the RT-1 after people’s representatives including MP and MLAs had started demanding to shoot the problem tiger.
While over 100 camera traps were installed in the forest to track the beast’s movement, 35 volunteers from 14 different villages were roped to help the tracking teams in the forest. Four veterinary doctors, shooters led by local forest officials, were directly involved in the operation. Four teams of 25 Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) personnel from Tadoba-Andhari tiger project were also pressed into action.