Nagpur: Villagers in Khapa-Dhotiwada area under Kondhali Forest Range are terror struck. A 7-8 year old tiger or tigress wreaking havoc in the area by roaming freely and terrorizing the villagers to the core. The big cat was on Tuesday spotted by villagers around 11 am. The panic-stricken villagers have now stopped sleeping in their fields at night times. A police team and Forest Department officials reached the spot and started searching for the elusive tiger or tigress.
Khapa Forest Area No. 107 of Kondhali Range comes under Protected Forest. Just besides this forest area lies the Bor Sanctuary. The tiger in question entered Khapa-Dhotiwada area most probably on January 3. The big cat made a kill of a wild boar on the same day and the next day the feline enjoyed a goat of a farmer named Onkar Varram Chavan at his field. The villagers however gathered courage and forced the tiger to run away from the area. But on January 5, when a woman named Yashoda Ratansingh Jadhav (50) was going to her farm around 10 am, she spotted the huge tiger. She immediately alerted the villagers.
The villagers in turn informed the Forest Ranger Vaishali Navalkar. Later, the Forest Range Officer Sudhir Chaudhary along with a team of forest guards rushed to the spot and started a hunt to capture the big cat. The team soon tasted success but only spotting the huge tiger when it jumped into the air and vanished into thick forested area. But the high jump confirmed the presence of a tiger or tigress. As a precautionary measure a team of cops from Kondhali Police Station and a Quick Response Team of from Katol Sub-Division were deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident. The teams exploded crackers in order to scare the feline and also to net it.
Till the filing of this report, the tiger has not been captured.
