‘Take your tiger back’: Rewari villagers force Rajasthan forest team to stay put

A forest team from Rajasthan, which has come to capture a tiger that strayed from the Sariska Tiger Reserve to Rewari, is facing the ire of villagers in Haryana.

The villagers, who are making desperate attempts to get rid of the feline, are virtually holding team members hostage, fearing they might go back to Rajasthan leaving the tiger behind.

Some team members were even roughed up by locals. The team has sought intervention of the Rajasthan Government. Team members said they were being pressured by the villagers to tranquilise the tiger and take it back to Rajasthan, with some locals even threatening to take things into their hands.

The latest face-off occurred on September 7 when the tiger while trying to return to Rajasthan ventured into fields and was cornered by Jakhopur villagers. It took hours for the wildlife team and the police to control the villagers. The rattled tiger returned to the Jhabua forest, said sources.

“The tiger ventured into fields and hundreds of men came charging with sticks... We have been trying to explain things to them, but they refuse to listen. They are pressuring us to tranquilise the cat and take it away at the earliest. They are aggressively restricting our movement. We have sought intervention of the authorities,” said DFO Sangram Singh Katihar while speaking to The Tribune.

“A group of villagers hovers around us continuously. One of a team member who went to a local eatery was roughed up. We are restricting ourselves to our camp,” said a team member. Katihar said tranquilising the tiger was the most challenging task owing to attitude of the locals. Teams from Ranthambore have already visited the site and experts from MP are being called to carry out the task.

“It’s difficult to spot the tiger in fields. Then we need complete support from locals. Unaware of the terrain, the tiger has made two attempts to return, but a crowd corned it both times,” said Katihar.

A panchayat member from Jakhopur said, “The tiger is impacting farming and our daily lives. It has started coming to fields and we will not able to be harvest our crops. The team is planning to flee by leaving it behind. We have decided that we will tackle the problem ourselves.”

The Tribune learnt that a panchayat of 10 villages was held where a reward was announced for “bringing down” the tiger. Hunters from Rajasthan and UP were being called by locals, the sources said.