Tiger of Pilibhit

The Tiger of Pilibhit is a male sub-adult tiger believed to be responsible for killing and partially eating eight people in the Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur forest divisions of Uttar Pradesh, India from May through August 2010, before being captured.[1]

History

The tiger is reported to have killed its first victim on May 3, 2010 in the Deoria range of Pilibhit forest division. The victim had entered the jungle in search of drift wood.[2] On June 7, a second killing took place; when the body was recovered, the victim's right arm was found to have been eaten. This was the first instance in which the tiger was alleged to have eaten part of its victim.[3] After having reportedly claimed four more victims in the Deoria range, the tiger was said to have moved to the Khutar forest range in the Shahjahanpur forest division where it claimed two more victims in August 2010.

Identification

After the fourth human kill, forest department officials installed camera traps to identify the killer. A photo-capture confirmed the presence of three adult tigers and a cub in the locality.[2] Pugmarks were collected at the sites of the killings along with hair that had fallen from the tiger's body, which was sent for DNA analysis.[4] Based on these investigations, officials identified the animal as a sub-adult male that was attempting to establish its territory.[5]

Capture

The tiger was not branded a man eater because all the human kills had taken place within the forest area. The tiger had also not eaten the flesh of three of its alleged victims and had continued to kill its natural prey.[6] Accordingly, it was decided to capture instead of shooting the tiger. The National Tiger Conservation Authority and a team from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) assisted forest officials in the capture of the tiger.[7] On September 2, 2010 Avijit Bhawal of the WTI fired a dart at the tiger. However, the tiger was alarmed by an inadvertent shot fired by a forest guard, causing it to move, deflecting the dart.[8] On October 14, the tiger was tracked to a clump of Prosopis juliflora, where it was taking cover near Nagla Hira Singh village in Farrukhabad forest division. Three darts were successfully fired to tranquilize it. Prior to the tiger's sedation, a large crowd of people had gathered around the clump of bushes where the tiger was hidden and began pelting the animal with stones. One person was mauled severely and several others suffered injuries when the tiger attacked them.[6][9] The tiger was sent to Lucknow Zoo on October 15 where it came to be known as Farrukhabadi by the zoo staff because of the fact that it was captured in the Farrukhabad forest division. Due to a lack of available space at the Lucknow Zoo, the tiger was moved to the Kanpur zoo on October 24.[1]

Aftermath

Following the attacks in an area where tigers had not been seen before, a tiger status monitoring exercise was initiated by the Uttar Pradesh Tiger Conservation Project in collaboration with the WTI to determine the nature of tiger movement in the area and to determine if the area should be considered a critical tiger zone. The survey is expected to be completed by January 2011.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Pilibhit tiger sent to Kanpur zoo". The Times of India. October 25, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "Experts to study causes of tiger sightings in Pilibhit". The Indian Express. October 23, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Man-killing tiger in Pilibhit keeping forest dept on toes". The Times of India. July 31, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Tiger kills man in Uttar Pradesh". Sify. August 27, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  5. ↑ "A tiger whodunit: Which one is the man-killer?". The Times of India. August 26, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  6. 1 2 "Tranquillised tiger ends in zoo". The Times of India. October 16, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  7. ↑ "'Man-killer' tiger to be tranquilized". Webindia123. August 8, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Maneater of Pilibhit". Hindustan Times. September 11, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Tiger that killed eight Indians caught at last". BBC. October 15, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.

External links

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