Efforts On To Tranquilize Tigress Sundari In Satkosia

Angul: The six-member expert team that had failed twice in its attempt to tranquilize the Royal Bengal tigress Sundari on Tuesday, resumed its operation on Wednesday.

According to reports, on the basis of the information by the forest staff that the tigress is hiding in the forest along the hillside near Baghamunda village, one team proceeded towards the hill forest while another team moved to the other side of the hill.

As informed by one of the team members, the tigress had not moved from the area where she is staying now at present. “Last night, we had kept the bait and waited on the tree-top for her arrival. But she did not turn up. We are constantly monitoring the movement of the tigress through GPS tracking,” he added.

He, however, said that it will be not easy to dart the tigress as she is staying in the bushy area of the forest. “Once she comes out in the open, it would be easier for us to tranquilize her,” he pointed out.

“We have requested the villagers to remain inside their house till the tigress is tranquilised. The tigress will then be kept inside the enclosure at Raiguda in the Satkosia Tiger Reserve,” in-charge DFO, Angul, V. Kartik said.

Led by the additional conservator (ACF), Satkosia, Srikant Behera, and accompanied by two platoons of the armed police force, the team, comprising experts from the Bhubaneswar-based College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT), Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, two veterinary doctors from the Similipal Tiger Reserve, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, and a Gun Assistant had arrived at the Satkosia Sanctuary from Angul at around 9 am on Saturday.

The Forest department intensified its effort to catch the tigress after it had allegedly killed an elderly person of Tainsi village inside the Satkosia Tiger Reserve on October 21. Following the incident, tension had run high in the village. The irate villagers later in the day had attacked a police team at Kanjara Mundasahi near the NH-55 and burnt a police van forcing the police to resort to lathi-charge to disperse them.

Prior to this, the tigress had allegedly killed a woman of Hatibari village on September 12.