GURGAON: There’s a tiger in the Aravalis. Yes, you read that right.
A male tiger that is believed to have strayed from Sariska in Rajasthan was spotted on Friday afternoon in a village near Masani barrage in Rewari.
Forest and wildlife teams from Haryana and Rajasthan are jointly tracking the tiger, which appears to have ventured out of Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) on Wednesday and trekked nearly 125km to reach Rewari, the district south of Gurgaon.
Wildlife officials tracked ST-2302 from pugmarks, which were spotted outside the boundaries of Sariska on Wednesday and then in Alwar. The three-year-old tiger made its presence felt in Sukh Kheda village near the Rajasthan-Haryana border town of Bhiwadi, where it attacked a farmer around 2pm on Thursday. Raghuveer Yadav was in his mustard field when the tiger suddenly appeared.
A letter informing the Haryana wildlife department about the attack and cautioning it about the tiger’s movements was sent by Alwar forest officer AK Srivastava. Masani is on the bed of the seasonal Sahibi river. The tiger likely followed the river’s course from Alwar that brought it into the Haryana Aravalis, which don’t have any recorded tiger sightings in recent memory.
In fact, the only other time a tiger has been sighted in Haryana was last April when a big cat that had wandered out of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand was seen in camera traps at Kalesar National Park in Yamunanagar.
Wildlife officials said they were tracking ST-2302 to see if it returns on its own. An option, if it doesn’t, is to use a goat to bait and then tranquilise it so that it can be transported back to the Rajasthan reserve.
Villagers in the Masani area have been to stay at home between 5pm and 7am while the tiger is in the area, MS Mallik, additional principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) and conservator of wildlife, south Haryana, told TOI.
Locals have also been urged to report any attack on cattle to the forest department. “Our teams are continuously monitoring the tiger’s movement. Cages and baits are in place to capture the tiger and take it back to Sariska,” Pankaj Goyal, PCCF (wildlife), Haryana, said.
Experts said it is natural for tigers to explore new territory and it is likely to return on its own. SP Yadav, additional director general of forest (Project Tiger) and member secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), told TOI, “The hills of Haryana and Rajasthan are a contiguous patch. Sub-adult tigers are exploratory in nature and sometimes venture out. Aravali had a tiger population more than 100 years ago. There have not been any sightings of tigers recently in Aravalis. The teams of both states are monitoring its movement.”
Asked if the tiger was likely to be tranquilised, he added, “There is no need. Tigers will go back on their own. Monitoring is being done and precautions are being taken by both states to avoid any untoward incidents if the tiger ventures into any human territory.”
A male tiger that is believed to have strayed from Sariska in Rajasthan was spotted on Friday afternoon in a village near Masani barrage in Rewari.
Forest and wildlife teams from Haryana and Rajasthan are jointly tracking the tiger, which appears to have ventured out of Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) on Wednesday and trekked nearly 125km to reach Rewari, the district south of Gurgaon.
Wildlife officials tracked ST-2302 from pugmarks, which were spotted outside the boundaries of Sariska on Wednesday and then in Alwar. The three-year-old tiger made its presence felt in Sukh Kheda village near the Rajasthan-Haryana border town of Bhiwadi, where it attacked a farmer around 2pm on Thursday. Raghuveer Yadav was in his mustard field when the tiger suddenly appeared.
A letter informing the Haryana wildlife department about the attack and cautioning it about the tiger’s movements was sent by Alwar forest officer AK Srivastava. Masani is on the bed of the seasonal Sahibi river. The tiger likely followed the river’s course from Alwar that brought it into the Haryana Aravalis, which don’t have any recorded tiger sightings in recent memory.
In fact, the only other time a tiger has been sighted in Haryana was last April when a big cat that had wandered out of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand was seen in camera traps at Kalesar National Park in Yamunanagar.
Wildlife officials said they were tracking ST-2302 to see if it returns on its own. An option, if it doesn’t, is to use a goat to bait and then tranquilise it so that it can be transported back to the Rajasthan reserve.
Villagers in the Masani area have been to stay at home between 5pm and 7am while the tiger is in the area, MS Mallik, additional principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) and conservator of wildlife, south Haryana, told TOI.
Locals have also been urged to report any attack on cattle to the forest department. “Our teams are continuously monitoring the tiger’s movement. Cages and baits are in place to capture the tiger and take it back to Sariska,” Pankaj Goyal, PCCF (wildlife), Haryana, said.
Experts said it is natural for tigers to explore new territory and it is likely to return on its own. SP Yadav, additional director general of forest (Project Tiger) and member secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), told TOI, “The hills of Haryana and Rajasthan are a contiguous patch. Sub-adult tigers are exploratory in nature and sometimes venture out. Aravali had a tiger population more than 100 years ago. There have not been any sightings of tigers recently in Aravalis. The teams of both states are monitoring its movement.”
Asked if the tiger was likely to be tranquilised, he added, “There is no need. Tigers will go back on their own. Monitoring is being done and precautions are being taken by both states to avoid any untoward incidents if the tiger ventures into any human territory.”
