Operation Kaliyasot launched on Thursday to capture and shift the tiger T-1 active in the vicinity of the State Capital remained inconclusive on its third day as over 300 personnel and three elephants-strong forest team could succeed in just spotting pugmarks of the striped feline.
The third day of the operation started on a positive note for the forest team as there was report of T -1 caught on the surveillance camera in Kerwa area where the big cat also mauled the buffalo tied as prey by the forest department. On getting the information that T1 is active in the forest area and has killed the prey the team immediately left for the spot but the feline was smart enough as by the time the team reached there it had already left the place by eating half of the prey.
Sources from the forest department said that the reports of T1's activity started coming from late in the night and the feline was also spotted on the surveillance camera, further at about 5 am it killed the prey buffalo tied to lure it and left the place after eating half of it. The forest team could only find the pugmarks of the feline that vanished in the deep forest even before the search team could reach the spot.
An intensive search was launched by following pugmarks of the beast and claims were made by the search team in the morning that T1 has been traced and the elephants have cornered it and are pushing it towards the safe place to get it tranquilised but by noon
it was confirmed that the tiger has succeeded in evading the search team and like two previous days the search team called off the day after getting tired.
Forest sources informed that the operation would also be carried out on Sunday and would continue till the tiger is captured.