By IANS
Lucknow : A tiger that strayed into a village in Laklhimpur Kheri district four days ago is giving villagers sleepless nights after it killed two cattle in a row.
The tiger was first spotted in a paddy field, where a local farmer even photographed the animal.
The first kill was made on the night of Nov 10 when it grabbed a calf. But after beating of drums and gunfire by some locals, it abandoned the calf and fled to a neighbouring sugarcane field.
The following day, a carcass of a blue-bull was recovered from the field.
After these two incidents, forest officials are on high alert to catch the animal.
A special team led by M.P. Singh, director of the neighbouring Dudhwa National Park, has been camping near the sugarcane fields to catch the animal.
“We laid a trap by using the remains of the blue-bull as bait, but the animal was smarter and managed to give us a slip,” Singh told IANS over telephone from Ramuapur village about 200 km from here.
“We have been carrying out extensive search in the sugarcane fields and in the neighbouring areas with the help of two captive elephants. But to locate the tiger is proving difficult since it takes cover of the standing crops,” he said.
“We are trying to push the animal back into the forest. If we fail, we will lay another trap to capture it and later release it in the forest,” Singh said.