Tadoba buffer tigress captured after first human kill of 2023
The Tadoba administration was under immense pressure to capture the tigress after villagers reacted aggressively on Monday after the body of a 19-year-old youth who had gone missing was found.
Chandrapur: The Rapid Response Team of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) has caught the tigress responsible for killing a youth from Kukadheti village of Shivni (Buffer) range of the reserve on Monday late evening.
The Tadoba administration was under immense pressure to capture the tigress after villagers reacted aggressively on Monday after the body of a 19-year-old youth who had gone missing was found.
The park management also sought immediate permission from the PCCF (Wildlife) to capture the endangered tigress. Soon after the request was approved, Rapid Response Team was deployed in the area.
Tension prevailed in Kukadheti before the dead body of Shrikant Shriram, who had been missing for almost three days, was recovered from the forest near the village. Shrikant had gone missing from his farm on January 6 and his parents had lodged a missing complaint with the Sindwahi police on Sunday.
On Monday morning, the forest workers had recovered Srikanth’s body. And at the same time, the villagers had also seen the crowd of forest officials taking away the remains of the deceased and protested a lot for the postmortem. Deputy Director Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (Buffer) Kushagra Pathak had also reached the spot to take control of the situation.
The tigress was chased away by RRT shooter
He pacified the villagers by fully accepting the demand of recommending the deceased’s younger brother for a government job in the forest department after completing HSC. The villagers had given permission for the post-mortem only after giving written assurance.
“The sub-adult tigress responsible for the human kill was coming close to the village. So we sought permission from PCCF (Wildlife) to capture it. Within hours of the permission being granted, the RRT tranquilized and captured the problematic tigress at the site from where Srikanth’s remains had been recovered.” Kushagra Pathak said.
The tigress was chased away by RRT shooter Ajay Marathe in the evening and the cat was then taken to the Transit Treatment Center (TTC). The Kukadheti youth was the first case of a human being killed by a tiger in 2023. Last year alone, a total of 53 people were killed by poachers in this district. Of these, tigers killed about 46 people, while leopards killed about seven people.
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