Mumbai: After the forest department has confirmed the sighting of two cubs of the tigress Avni who was shot earlier this month in forest area of Yavatmal district, the forest department has been making several preparations to lure the cubs. The forest officials stated that a team of 200 personnel from the department including veterinarians have been deployed in Vihirgaon area of the Pandharkawada forest in Yavatmal district, where the cubs were seen.
“We have deployed personnels from Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) and foot patrolling staff. The personnels from Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) will also be assisting the team,” said a senior official from the forest department. To lure the cubs, several measures have been taken including using the voice recording of a tigress calling her cubs and keeping mutton pieces in the Vihirgaon range of the forest. “We have set up around 100 camera traps in the forest range. Our teams will be monitoring these on shift basis,” he added.
The forest department has also decided that when captured, the cubs will be shifted to an enclosure in Pench tiger reserve, meant for raising tiger cubs, after the approval from the special committee. “The enclosure is of 10 hectares in area, and have been set up for the orphaned tiger cubs,” the official said.
The forest department has maintained that the cubs were “healthy and are surviving” and that specialists would assess whether they had acquired a taste for humans from their mother. The mother was shot dead in early November after being accused of killing more than a dozen villagers, capping off one of India’s most high-profile tiger hunts and angering conservation activists.
The months-long search deployed 200 hunters using paragliders, infrared cameras, sharpshooters on elephant back, and even Calvin Klein fragrance to lure the big cat. Calvin Klein, an American brand of men’s cologne, contains civetone procured from the scent glands of a civet, was found to attract wild cats, according to scientific research.
