Officers and employees of the Bhopal Forest Circle that are sweating for last four days to locate tiger T1 might not have succeeded in even getting a glimpse of the striped feline, but the local visitors to the area are getting full view of the big cat.
Rahul Singh, a student of the Jagran lakecity University not only saw the big cat on Friday that was the second day of search operation, but also shot video of it. “I was returning from the university after attending my classes at about 3-3.30 pm when out of curiosity I looked at the site known as gyarah (eleven) gate where the tiger is said to come for drinking water and I was amazed to see that the tiger was there in full view sitting in the water. I was very much excited and took out my mobile shot the video, that full 3 minutes video is save in my mobile and may be remain for life as it was my once in a lifetime chance.”
Some others also who came across the tiger and spotted it from close distance also narrated almost the same story. All of those who claim to saw the tiger saw it in the second half of the day that too between 3 pm to 4.30, whereas the search operation of the forest department starts early in the morning and finishes at about 2 pm. This mismatch of timing of the forest department seems to be its failure and this could be the reason that why is it not able to corner the T1 till now. If the forest department changes its timing than there is the possibility that it could succeed in its plan to corner, tranquilize and shift the tiger.
Notably, reports of tigers roaming around the city are pouring in since last over a year, but it was during the last six months that reports of tiger’s roaming in the vicinity of Bhopal started coming in but scores of pictures and videos of them shot by people started circulating in the social media. Many people had close encounters with the striped feline but it is the good luck that till date tiger has not attacked any human being.