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Tigress, resting atop Gurudwara wall in UP's Pilibhit, captivates onlookers with unusual sight

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 27 Dec 2023, 12:23 am

Pilibhit (UP): People in Athkona village in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district were stunned on Tuesday when they spotted an adult tigress perched on a wall, peacefully enjoying the winter sunshine. While the spectacle drew thousands of onlookers triggering a chaos, forest officials managed to rescue the big cat by tranquilizing it later.

According to media reports, the tigress ventured out of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve Forest and entered the village, located around 20 km away, around 2 am on Tuesday. It made its way to aGurudwara compound wall and perched on it.

The forest officials reached the village at 5 am after being informed about the incident.

They covered the area around the wall with nets and initiated efforts to capture the big cat.

As the news of the tigress spread, people from the nearby areas began to gather in the village to see the unusual visitor.  Videos taken by onlookers show people standing just a few metres away from the big cat. People stood in clusters on roofs and other spots to look at the majestic animal.

The tigress, which was reportedly two to three years old, was injured, said reports.

Nearly 10 hours later, the tigress was successfully rescued by the forest department official.

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve's veterinarian Daksh Gangwar is examining her condition, reported TOI.

The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is spread across the Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh, forming part of the Terai Arc Landscape, in the upper Gangetic Plain Biogeographic Province along the Indo-Nepal border. The habitat is characterized by Saal Forests, tall grasslands and swamp maintained by periodic flooding from rivers. It is one of India’s 51 Project Tiger reserves.

As tiger population rises in the region like many other parts of India, the human-animal conflict intensifies often causing woes to the farmers in whose lands the animals stray into.

Earlier this year, India announced that its wild tiger population has increased to 3,167 from just 1,400 in 2006. However, according to the environmental magazine Down To Earth report, almost 30 per cent of the tigers roam outside the protected areas and regularly enter human habitations owing to shrinking tiger corridors from developmental activities.

The report said tigers are believed to be leaving forests in pursuit of herbivores that are increasingly foraying into human-dominated landscapes since the natural flora on which they survive is overtaken by invasive species such as lantana, a plant introduced to India by the British.

According to conservation news platform Mongabay-India, a study in 2020 found Lantana camara, a tropical American shrub, has invaded more than 40 percent of India’s tiger range. The Shivalik hills, Central India, and Southern Western Ghats are the worst hit.