Maneater tigress faces death

A tigress, which had devoured six people so far in some western UP districts, was declared a maneater and orders have been issued to kill it.

The forest department roped in three hunters – Shafat Ali Khan from Hyderabad, Shaad Ali Khan from Bijnore and Harish Dhami – to kill the tigress, which has been prowling in the districts in Moradabad division for the past several days.

Those devoured by the tigress were residents of Sambhal, Bijnore and Moradabad, sources here said.

District officials in Moradabad wrote to the forest department for declaring the tigress a maneater after the killings. The big cat made its first killing on December 26 last year.Sources said the tigress could have strayed into human habitation from the forests near Corbett National Park.

Residents panic

The killings have created panic among residents in the area and people blocked traffic on the busy Hardwar-Moradabad Road, demanding that it be declared a maneater and killed forthwith. 

The locals had later held demonstrations against the failure of the forest department to trap the animal. The officials feared that the matter could snowball into a major law ad order issue.All attempts by local forest officials to locate and trap the tigress had failed. The officials expressed surprise that only human beings had been targeted by the tigress. 

“So far it has not attacked animals, which is baffling,” an official said. Four years ago, a tiger was declared a maneater in the state after it killed five people. It was later killed by Shafat Ali Khan, whose help the government has sought again.