Tiger shifted to Sajjangarh park

UDAIPUR: The tiger T-24 (Ustad), which is suspected of killing a forest guard on May 8 and attacking three more others, was shifted from the Ranthambhore National Park to Sajjangarh Biological Park in Udaipur on Saturday night.

Forest department officials said the tiger was shifted around 11:30 pm on Saturday in a cage filled with ice to help him stay cool during the journey and beat the heat. Officials said they had shifted the animal as he had attacked more than six men at the national park. Sources said minister for forest and wildlife Rajkumar Rinwa had claimed that he did not have any information on the decision to shift the tiger.

The minister had also claimed that he had constituted a committee to investigate the issue, sources said. According to the officials, the minister had claimed that if the committee finds that the tiger was not responsible for the attacks, then it would be shifted back to the Ranthambore National Park. The tiger is suspected to have attacked four people in last five years. However, former wildlife advisor Dr Raza Tehsin said the move to shift the tiger to an enclosure from an open habitat was not a right decision.

He said any animal would not attack an individual unless and until he/she was disturbed from a close distance.

Mewanwhile, T-24 has refused to feed on dead meat in the captivity of Udaipur biological park, forcing the wildlife authorities to try a ‘live bait’ to avoid complications out of a possible prolonged starvation.

The eight-year-old tiger, nicknamed Ustad, has said to have killed four humans. He was shifted from Ranthambhore National Park to the Sajjangarh Biological Park in Udaipur on Saturday. The shifting was carried out secretively after the accusations that the Ustad had killed two forest department employees too.