100 men, 32 cameras, drones and an elusive 300-kg predator

At 4 am when air is at its nippiest, there's a stillness that wraps around Dr Nitin Katiyar, perched atop a 22-foot watchtower in the eerie silence of a Rehmankheda dawn.

- Gaurav Saigal

LUCKNOW:

Trained to tranquilize wild cats, Dr Katiyar is in the area where a three-and-half-year-old tiger has been giving sleepless nights to locals and to higher-ups in the government machinery 20 km away.

The 4 am time defines the start of the day. The tower is in the forest, and with Katiyar is another forest staff who wait here for next few hours until replaced by another team, doing the same - sit quietly with eyes affixed on the bait tied 100 feet away.

Yet an elusive tiger has managed to evade capture for the last 30 days, killing six animals to feed itself. On Monday, the tiger killed the seventh bait on the campus of Central Institute for Sub-tropical Horticulture (CISH) while fresh pugmarks were found in Ulrapur village.

A force of 100 men from three districts is chasing the 300-kg tiger, with the help of 32 camera traps and two drones.

The HT team spent a day in Rehmankheda and took stock of what it means to 'get a tiger out of a forest.

"We are working to bring the tiger out of the forest. The area it (tiger) is roaming in is forest area, and very dense," said a senior forest officer engaged in rescue operations.

Geographically, the tiger is roaming in a 10-km area around the CISH. Forest officers have divided the area into three zones. Zone One is the area around the CISH which has a high prey base and almost no human settlement. Zone Two is the area around Meethenagar village, falling south to the boundary of the CISH, and Zone Three is to the east, across the Lucknow-New Delhi railway track.

On ground the team comprises divisional forest officer, Awadh Range, Sitanshu Pandey, nodal officer of the operation, Chandan Chaudhary, members of various wildlife organisations and a technical team working on gadgets.

How it is done daily

In all, 45-forest staff, including tranquilizing experts, remain on watchtower and ground in rotation in three shifts from 7 am.