The days of wandering around for the great beast are over. The nomad tiger from Maharashtra, which was in the news in 2018 for the longest dispersal in the quickest time in the country, might be spending the rest of his life behind bars for killing 3 humans.?
It was tranquilised in Kanha National Park and shifted to Van Vihar in Bhopal, where it will in all probability be kept in solitary confinement, say sources according to TOI.?
Officers say the tiger was given many chances to survive in the wild but it kept straying into human habitation. The authorities declared it ¡°dangerous¡± to human life in compliance with the 2019 NTCA guidelines and decided to keep it in an enclosure.?
The five-year-old, 180-kg male had wandered 510km, from Chandrapur in Maharashtra to Palaspani in MP¡¯s Betul ¡ª killing three humans on the way ¡ª in search of new territory between August and December 2018. It was captured by Satpura Tiger Reserve officials from near a fly-ash pond in Sarni area on December 10, 2018 and shifted to Kanha, where it was kept in an enclosure for around 45 days.?
Van Vihar will now be its new home. Van Vihar currently houses 14 tigers, but only four are on display. The others are either ¡°dangerous¡± or were rescued as orphans and are kept in separate cages away from the tens of thousands of visitors.?
¡°The Kanha team arrived at around 10.30am. It will take some time for the tiger to adjust and ease its aggression. CZA will decide if it will be put on display. We will write to them,¡± Van Vihar director Kamlika Mohanta told TOI.?
The tiger¡¯s first human kill was reported in Maharashtra¡¯s Mangrul Dastagir on October 19, followed by a second one on October 22 in Anjansingi. Both attacks took place in Amravati district of Maharashtra. It continued to prey on cattle as it prowled close to human settlements. The third kill was reported near Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR), about 200km from Bhopal.?
¡°It was captured from Betul twice. There was barely 500m between the first and second locations. We gave it a chance to adapt to the natural habitat but it was found moving towards human habitations. It may be because it was born close to Chandrapur power station (in Maharashtra), which is surrounded by human habitations,¡± said Kanha¡¯s field director L Krishnamurthy.?
It was shifted to STR on January 31, 2019, where it was radio-collared and released into the wild on February 1. Forest officials monitored it 24x7 and scrambled to intercept it when it moved out of STR territory and got close to human habitation on February 22, 2019. It was captured and taken back to STR. It kept straying out and the authorities decided it was safer to keep it in an enclosure.?