Bantala: A special committee has been constituted Wednesday to ensnare Royal Bengal Tigress ‘Sundari’ after a woman was reportedly mauled by it at Hatibari village close to Tikarpada adjoining Satkosia sanctuary in Angul district.
The tigress was spotted in the forests of Athamallik division recently. The team comprising four veterinarians and an equal number of tiger experts visited Rangapur, Lehedi, Telanai, Kundapur, and Rangamatia jungles under the division but failed to capture the tigress. The team members advised Kundapur villagers not to venture into the forest as they expect to encage the animal within the next two days.
The matter came to light during a meeting of forest officials, tiger experts and vets at the Athamallik forest bungalow in the day.
The closed door meeting was attended by veterinarians Sandip Agarwal of Kanha National Tiger Project in Madhya Pradesh, tiger catcher Santosh Singh Thakur, Ramesh Rahingdal, Satyam Singh Thakur, Dr Ramesh and Dr Prayag from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun, Nandankanan zoo veterinarian Kishore Sahu, Dr Manoj Patra and Athamallik Divisional forest officer Samyak Samantra.
A special committee was formed at the meeting which chalked out a detailed strategy to capture the tigress to transport it to the core area of Satkosia sanctuary. Three cages have been kept ready to ensnare the tigress.
It is, however, not yet confirmed whether the tigress is a man-eater as a post-mortem report revealed that the woman died due to asphyxia. Significantly, the locals have been demanding the capture of Sundari and its relocation to Satkosia.
PNN