The Chief Wildlife Warden Rupak De has written to the Chief Wildlife Warden Uttrakhand to declare the Moradabad stray tigress as a maneater in his region after yet another tiger killing near Kalagarh dam on Sunday . De while talking to "The Pioneer" on Monday said that they were suspecting that the killing near the Kalagarh dam on Sunday inside the Corbett National Park was by the same tigress making it the tenth victim in the UP- Uttranchal area. Uttrakhand officials however believe that the killing is the work of a male tiger and not the stray tigress.
The close proximity of the Badahpur, Sahuwallah and Kaudia in UP along with Corbett National Park in Uttrakhand has been a bane for the forest officials with the area thriving in wildlife and the stray tigress getting a corridor to flit in and out of each state. De said that he also asked the Chief Wildlife Warden Uttrankhand to direct his officials for better coordination with Uttar Pradesh. "I have written to the Chief Wildlife Warden Uttrakhand to declare the tigress a maneater in his area because our jurisdiction does not work in that area. I have also asked the Chief Wildlife Warden Uttrakhand to direct officials to coordinate in field with our officials" said De.
The Chief Wildlife Warden admitted that the Uttrakhand officials believed that the Sunday killing was by a male tiger instead of the stray Moradabad tigress. ‘The Uttrakhand officials state that the killing was made by a male tiger but we suspect that the killing was by the same stray tigress of Moradabad" said De. Incidentally this is the second killing in the Uttrakhand area wherein the last killing took place on January 14. There was uncertainty regarding this killing too which was first attributed to the stray tigress and later to a male tiger. In Uttar Pradesh the last two killings, one made in Badahpur on January 26 and the other made in the Sahuwallah forests on Feburary 6 are suspected to be the killings made by the same tigress.
However SDO Kalagarh KS Rawat while talking to "The Pioneer" ruled out the possibility of the stray tigress having made the kill and said that a male tiger had made the killing near the Kalagarh Dam on Sunday. " This is a killing which has taken place within the Corbett Park and is not the work of the tigress. This has been done by either a leopard or a male tiger" said Rawat. The official however said that they had not been able to clearly make out the pug marks. "We have not been able to work on the pug marks" said Rawat. Regarding the initiatives taken by the Kalagarh forest officials in helping trace the tigress, the SDO said that they had three teams working on the border area. " We have three teams working on this side to trace the tigress" he added.