Gadchiroli March 19 (District Correspondent) Quite a sensation prevailed in the city of Gadchiroli today when a full-grown tigress entered the nursery near the govt. agriculture college on the busy Chandrapur road just in the centre of the city. However, the forest officials succeeded in capturing the tigress after continuous efforts of five hours and the people heaved a sigh of relief.
There was a tremendous crowd of the people to see the tigress as the news of its entry into the city spread like a wild fire in the city. Police had to intervene and traffic was stopped on the main road for few hours.
At around 10 am, a tigress was seen chasing a wild boar in the nursery of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sonapur by the laborers working there. The tigress could not go out as the nursery was walled on all sides. The officer of the Kendra intimated the matter to the forest authorities. Upon this, the senior forest officials including Dy. Conservator of Forests Milish Dutt Sharma, Assistant Conservator of Forest Sonal Bhadke and Dhiraj Dhembre, officer in charge of Gadchiroli forest range, immediately rushed to the spot under the guidance of Conservator of Forest Dr. Kishore Mankar and started efforts to capture the tigress.
Immediately the rapid action team from Tadoba comprising Dr. Ravikant Khobragade, Veterinary Officer, Ajay Marathe, shooter, Amol Korpe Driver, Akshay Dandekar reached the scene at around 2 pm. A team of Forest Department and Rapid Action Force located the tigress and knocked her unconscious at 4:55 PM. The tigress was then put in a cage and was shifted to a safe place of the Forest Department.
Veterinary Officer of Forest Department will examine the tigress and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) will take further decision. Dr. Kishore Mankar appealed to avoid walking in forested areas after dark as there is dense forest everywhere in Gadchiroli district and near the city as well. Mr. Milish Sharma thanked the Tiger Monitoring Team of Gadchiroli Forest Department, Police Department and the officers and staff of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra for their help in capturing the tiger.
To control the crowd and the situation, SDPO Pranil Gilda, PSO Arvindkumar Katlam and their team worked tirelessly and maintained the law-and-order situation during the hours of crisis.
The incident of tigress was a matter of hot discussion in the city throughout the day.
