Tigress Sundari Dodges Forest Staff Again In Satkosia

Angul: Despite valiant efforts since the last two days, the expert team in Satkosia sanctuary again failed to tranquilize the Royal Bengal tigress Sundari on Wednesday night.

Talking to mediapersons on Thursday, Dr Indramani Nath, one of the members of the tranquilizing team, said the team had made all efforts to capture the tigress near Kumuri village on Wednesday night and kept a goat tied to a tree expecting her to arrive. To attract the tigress, the team had also sprayed the urine of a male tiger. “After waiting for some time, the tigress came out of the forest and moved towards the bait. But it ran away into the forest as the team hiding on the tree-top was about to dart her.”

Asked whether the tigress is lurking somewhere nearby the Kumuri village, Nath said that the GPS tracking done by a team of 50 forest guards, found her inside the dense forest near Chhanchunia village.

He also informed that since there is poor GPS network, it is being assumed that the tigress might have moved inside the core area of the sanctuary.

“In Bandhavgarh national park, it is easier to tranquilize a wild animal by sitting on the elephant as the park is replete with big trees. But in Satkosia sanctuary, most of the areas are covered by bushes. As a result, it becomes very difficult to locate a wild animal,” he pointed out.

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Additional Conservator of Forest (ACF), Subhendu Behera, who is leading the team, said efforts are on to capture the tigress. “We are tracking the movement of the tigress. Once she enters the core area, it would be easier for us to tranquilize her since there is no bush in this area. We will start a fresh search operation today,” he added.

The ACF, however, said that the two experts from the Bhubaneswar-based College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT), who had arrived on October 20 to tranquilize the tigress, left for Bhubaneswar on Thursday morning.

The Forest department intensified its effort to catch the tigress after it had allegedly killed an elderly person of Tainsi village inside 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.