Injured tigress strays into houses in Kheri, found dead

PILIBHIT: A two-year-old tigress was found dead in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri district, at around 10am on Saturday.
The big cat was possibly suffering from septicemia caused by an old wound in one of her paws and had strayed into human habitation in search of food on Friday night, a forest official said. This is the second tiger death in the district in four days.
Seeing the tigress outside their homes at night, people tried to surround the wounded animal. Forest department officials with field teams also rushed in.
The tigress thereafter swiftly moved through a few houses causing more panic in the hamlet in Khanjapur -- 2km from the reserve forest in proximity of Mailani range under North Kheri division of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR).
Field director of DTR, B Prabhakar, told TOI on Saturday that during the rescue operation, the tigress charged towards a parked Gypsy of the forest department and broke its windscreen. Prabhakar added: "There was a large crowd. She looked disturbed and in a lot of pain due to the wound. No one was inside the vehicle. The tigress then disappeared in the dark and her carcass was found near the bushes the next morning."
The carcass has been sent to Bareilly-based Indian Veterinary Research Institute, he added. "She also had a wound in the abdomen and perhaps suffered from acute starvation. We are trying to ascertain the exact cause of her death," the field director said.
Divisional forest officer (DFO), Sundaresh (who uses his first name only), pointed out that "besides charging towards the parked Gypsy, the tigress tried to prey on a cow inside one of the houses." "Forest authorities could not dart the animal at night and it may have succumbed to the injuries," the DFO added.
On May 31, a carcass of an adult male tiger was found in Nighasan forest range of North Kheri division and forest officials had attributed the cause of death to "infighting".