On March 13, last year, the guard of an abandoned rubber factory sighted a tigress inside its premises in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district. Almost 15 months after its first sighting, the big cat was finally tranquilised by the forest officials today on June 18 and was transported back into the wild.

“A team led by field director Javed Akhtar from the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve had been dispatched to trap the tigress.  The officials had secured the perimeter of the abandoned factory but it was difficult to tranquilise the animal at the location where the tigress was roaming as it could have been risky for the team,” the official statement informed.

“Finally, the tigress was lured towards a tank where it got stuck and an earth mover was used to tear open the tank following which the animal was safely tranqulised,” it added.

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The entire operation lasted a couple of hours.

Deputy Director, Pilibhit Tiger Reserve Naveen Khandelwal told Gaon Connection that the rubber factory was abandoned almost 30 years ago and it is spread across 500 hectares. The factory is situated approximately 90 kilometres from the tiger reserve.

“The area around the factory is full of wild boars, black bucks and macaques which ensured a regular supply of prey for the tigress and it chose to live on the premises rather than going back to the jungle,” he said.

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Three days after the factory guard had sighted the tigress, a plan was hatched to stealthily observe the movements of the big cat. 

“Photo sensors, and CCTV cameras were secretly installed on the premises on March 16 and the tigress was captured by the camera on multiple occasions, following which the plan was hatched to take the animal under control,” the statement informed.

It is reported that a similar operation had begun to track and rescue the animal in March last year, but it was suspended due to the COVID19 pandemic.

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“The tigress is a fully mature adult as judged by the yellowing of her canines, roughly around five-seven years of age, but for her age, she seems a little less developed at just 115 kg body weight and had a relatively small stature (body length is 140 cm) and pug size,” Sushant Soma, wildlife biologist, Wildlife Trust of India, was quoted as saying. 

The tigress has been transported to the south Sonaripur range of the Dudhwa National Park, which is situated about 150 kilometres away from Bareilly. 

The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve which is situated on the Indo-Nepal border in the terai region of the Himalayas  has almost 65 tigers and occupies almost 23 per cent of the total area of Pilibhit. 

With inputs from Mohit Shukla