Sunderbans tiger trapped after hiding for 16 hours

An adult Royal Bengal Tiger, which had strayed into a village in Kultali area of South 24 Parganas district, was trapped inside a cage on Tuesday night after eluding forest personnel and villagers for 16 hours, Forest Minister Jyotipriyo Mallick said.

The big cat was hiding in a paddy field after crossing a creek from nearby Sunderbans Reserve Forest area since morning and several efforts to capture it had failed till evening, a Forest official said.

Mallick told PTI ''the male tiger will now be checked by vets after being tranquilised tomorrow morning to see whether it has suffered bruises, cuts and then kept under observation at our rescue centre for seven days.'' If it does not show any abnormality in behaviour it will be released in the forest, Mallick said.

But if abnormal behaviour is noticed in the animal in the next one week, it will be taken to Alipur Zoological Garden, the minister said. The official said the tiger could be caught at around 9 pm after forest personnel switched off all lights in the vicinity and as the tiger emerged out of the paddy field it was trapped in a cage which was camouflaged with leaves and branches.

It started roaring after realizing it was trapped as the door automatically bolted when it stepped inside the cage amid cheers by hundreds of villagers who were waiting at a distance from the cordoned area.

''We had asked the villagers and everyone present to be calm and quiet and switch off all lights to make it appear like a jungle,” the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)