Now, tiger outwits wildlife team

3 Feb 2009, 2051 hrs IST, TNN

LUCKNOW: The clever tiger has managed to hoodwink even the expert team from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). So much so that the WTI team which was assisting the operation at Faizabad has been called back only to be replaced with a much-experienced cadre from the agency.

In fact, there might be an even more experienced team coming in if this one fails too. “It is a difficult operation to trap the tiger but we are not willing to allow ourselves more time now since this is a clever tiger,” said Ashok Kumar, vice-president, WTI.

The biggest impediment in the operation is tracking the tiger and the major technical difficulty is the continuous human interference in the area. Even the officials from the spot shared that cordoning off the forest area was not possible.

The tiger has currently been located at Kumarganj tehsil of Faizabad. It is hiding in the forest near Kamakhya temple along the banks of Gomti. The efforts are still directed towards trapping the tiger alive but the final call will be of the department.

Shooting down the tiger is not easy for the forest department after the high court intervened in the matter. The PIL was filed by three NGOs of Lakhimpur Kheri requesting the court to save the tiger after the department trained its guns at the feline branding it a man-eater.

“To shoot it down, the department will have to specifically show that it is a man-eater,” said the counsel Anurag Narain. The tiger has killed three men in its two-month stay in the state. The hearing into the PIL will come up again on Wednesday.

It was mentioned in the PIL that the encroachment on the forest land is huge and that massive afforestation has to be carried out to make the forests suitable for wildlife.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lucknow/Now_tiger_outwits_wildlife_team/articleshow/4071533.cms

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