Ranchi: Meet Quila, the Royal Bengal Tiger from Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Jharkhand consumed by wanderlust.
He created a sensation by entering a house in the Mardu village of Silli Block, about 65 km from Ranchi, on Wednesday morning. Quila has been tranquilised, caged and sent back to the PTR since.
“We sent the animal to a soft release centre for observation around 8 am on Thursday. It will be freed into the wild later,” PTR field director S R Natesh said.
Quila was first spotted near the Palamu Fort in October 2023. He was named Quila – the Hindi name for fort – due to the location. He is one of five tigers in PTR.
PTR deputy director Prajesh Jena noted that the big cat is sharp and has travelled almost the entire internal tiger corridor in Jharkhand.
“Over the past two years, it visited Chatra, Hazaribag, Palamu, and Gumla, and returned. It has never harmed a human. About six months ago, it reached Khunti and wandered to Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary in East Singhbhum district, but couldn’t find its way home. The tiger was moving between Dalma and West Bengal,” he added.
Foresters last traced Quila to Khunti. This was when the tiger was attempting to return home. According to Jena, it was returning towards PTR when it entered Purandar Mahto’s house on Wednesday morning.
Mahto woke up on Wednesday and left the house to begin his chores. That is when he spotted the tiger walking into the house. His minor daughter, and the daughter of a relative, were asleep inside at that time. Mahto managed to bring out the two girls and shut the door from outside before raising an alarm.
A PTR team arrived and succeeded in capturing Quila after a 13-hour operation. It was initially suspected that the tiger was from West Bengal as the Silli Block is close to Jharkhand’s border with that state.
“We matched its stripe patterns and other evidence with our recorded documents, including camera trap images, and confirmed it is the same tiger photographed in October 2023 near Palamu Fort,” Jena said.
It was sent to PTR after a preliminary health check-up. His health was checked again at the Reserve after the nine-hour journey.
Camera trap images and other evidence suggest that PTR has five tigers now. In 1995, it was home to 71 tigers. According to the 2023 All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) report, the reserve had only one tiger.
