At the end of April this year a wild Bengal tiger navigated the town of Nandankanan and nearby areas when after a few days this male tiger decided the local Zoo was his destiny. As a matter of fact the male tiger had been spotted several times in the vicinity, the last few months before the incident. Therefore, the Zoo had set up cameras and monitored the CCTV footage, to track the tiger’s movement. It is believed that he was in search for a female partner as he found its way to a tigress enclosure, for sure.
As the wild male tiger, estimated to be 5 – 7 years old, was looking for love, it was very easy to capture him. He walked straight into the safari area which is close to the tigress’ enclosure when the emergency door was opened. So, the posse of twenty men who assembled to catch the animal was redundant.
“We found that the tiger was moving close to the enclosure of a tigress Sara and we believe it may have been attracted by the female,” Deputy Director Chitta Ranjan Mishra told The New Indian Express. “Since the enclosure is located close to the safari, we decided to keep a watch on it and opened the emergency gate.”
With the food now brought to him ‘on a platter’ the trespasser made himself at home in the Zoo. Nevertheless, the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India protocol on straying tigers states clearly that the animal should be released back into the wild.
After a month, while debate was still ongoing what to do, the tiger was transferred to a different enclosure. But the animal didn’t wait for the final decision on his release. Whether it was boredom or the desire to pursue new horizons, he escaped his newly acquired captive life late in the evening of 1 June climbing the 18-foot wall of the enclosure. During the escape he damaged the wiring of the video camera that was installed, but pictures of the Houdini act have been captured.
So far, no one has been able to track down the tiger, though locals have been advised to be on alert that it may still be in the surrounding forests.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time a tiger has walked into the Nandankanan Zoo. Earlier in 1967, a tigress had entered Nandankanan Zoo premises and remained captive there. She was named Kanan. Nandankan Zoo’s safari currently contains 24 Bengal tigers, including 8 white tigers.
(Source: Treehugger, 05.06.2013; Deccan Herald, 30.04.2013; The New Indian Express, 01.05.2013 & 02.06.2013; Times of India, 01.05.2013)