Pilibhit: Forest department officials claimed to have ended the menace of a man-eating tigress that killed three persons last week by tranquilising the big cat and shifting it to Lucknow zoo on Saturday. The two-year-old tigress had struck terror among the residents of hundreds of villages around a 4-km radius of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve area spread over an area of 730 square km and had killed six persons and injured another woman since November last year.

The PTR DFO, however, said it had yet not been confirmed if they had tranquilised the same man-eating tigress.
The killings snowballed into a major electoral issue with residents of 275 villages situated in proximity of the tiger reserve, who threatened to boycott polls demanding a permanent solution to the problem of wild animals straying into human habitations, destroying life and property.

After the big cat claimed three lives in a week, normal life was thrown out of gear here and even poll candidates and party workers faced difficulties in visiting these villages. Shailendra Gangwar, BSP candidate from Pilibhit’s Barkhera constituency, had raised the issue of the tiger menace, saying that it had become an ordeal for him to campaign in the area. Residents of these 275 affected villages, however, made it clear that they don’t want their leaders to merely do lip-service and would rather boycott polls.

“We live under fear of wild animals all the time. Tigers attack us. Nilgais and monkeys often destroy our crop. We also face constant threat from wild boars, leopards and other animals,” said Mangat Ram, a resident of Piparia Karam village where a half-eaten body of 52-year-old Nanhe Lal was recently found.
Man-animal conflict is on rise in the Terai region, including areas of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri and Bahraich districts, mostly due to encroachment and settlements in and around the forest areas.

With model code of conduct in place, villagers who had firearms had to surrender their weapons to the authorities, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by tigers and other wild animals. “We had to even deposit crackers we keep handy to scare the animals away,” said Kunwar Singh, another farmer in the neighbouring Chandupur village.
The villagers also blamed the state government for poor infrastructure at PTR which has 40-45 tigers, according to last census. They said the tiger reserve was short of staff and was ill-equipped to deal with tigers and other big cats.

That is why, they said, the killer tigress had a free run in the area since November 2016, when it killed its first victim. Despite the presence of forest personnel who claimed to have trapped it in a cane field at Chandupur village, it managed to slip away after attacking an elephant on patrol. Then it moved to a cement brick manufacturing plant near Kalinagar town on Saturday, 7 km from PTR and 3 km from Piparia Karam where it killed its second third earlier this week, and mauled to death a 50-year-old villager in the premises. His partially eaten body was found on Saturday morning.

Kailesh Prakash, PTR DFO, said, “We are expecting that it is same tiger who killed a man on Saturday. However, it cannot be confirmed if it is same tiger who has killed other two persons as a few tigers have come out of forest cover. Six teams led by senior forest officials are regularly monitoring the situation and they will take appropriate action.” He also added that the officials will motivate the villagers to cast their votes.

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