Tiger surfaces again in UP,1 more killed

Even as the Forest Department has its hands full trying to track down two stray tigers in Ghazipur and Faizabad...

Even as the Forest Department has its hands full trying to track down two stray tigers in Ghazipur and Faizabad,another one surfaced near Tanda village of Lakhimpur Kheri district and killed a 16-year-old boy on Sunday. Pillu Singh was killed by the tiger,which Forest officials suspect,strayed from the nearby Kishanpur Sanctuary.

Our teams are monitoring the area. The victim was in the sugarcane fields when the tiger attacked him. The sugarcane fields are adjacent to the forest and provide a good cover for the tiger. We are trying to assess whether the tiger was provoked,and will not declare it a maneater or a man-killer as of now, said Divisional Forest Officer of South Kheri Ramesh Chandra Jha.

Meanwhile,the Forest Department on Monday declared the tiger at Faizabad a man-killer. The Department has been chasing the animal for two months since it came out of the forest in Pilibhit and had declared it a maneater on December 22 after it killed a 14-year-old boy near Sarai Bilahari village in Barabanki. It is believed that the tiger has now moved towards the Bihara jungle patch,officials said.

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The Department has,however,lost track of the Ghazipur tiger and officials believe it has settled in the jungles of Kaimur district in Bihar. It had attacked several people in the last few days though no one was seriously injured.

Wildlife experts say the tigers are straying out of forests as a result of degradation of forest cover and lack of sufficient territory for them. Apart from the core area,they should also be provided with a buffer zone to reduce man-animal conflict,said Rajesh Gopal,Member Secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The state government will now formulate a long-term strategy to prevent recurrence of such incidents with the Forest Department signing a memorandum of understanding with the Wildlife Trust of India for obtaining expertise and technical assistance and the NTCA pitching in with funds.

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