GUWAHATI
The Assam government has instructed the authorities of a national park to catch the tiger that killed an armed home guard on August 28 and transfer it to the zoo.
Officials of the Orang National Park and Tiger Reserve did not rule out the possibility of the tiger developing a taste for human blood after pouncing on Dhanmoni Deka and dragging his body for about 3 km inside the 279.83 sq. km wildlife habitat, better known for a sizeable population of the one-horned rhinoceros.
“We have issued an order to trace and transfer the tiger to a zoo, if necessary,” Assam’s Forest and Environment Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said after Asom Gana Parishad MLA Pradip Hazarika expressed concern over the tiger turning a ‘man-eater’ on August 30.
He also said that the family of the deceased home guard was paid an ex-gratia of ₹6 lakh according to regulations.
Orang, about 110 km northeast of Guwahati, is one of four tiger reserves in Assam and is strategic to the Kaziranga Orang Riverine Landscape along with the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve across the Brahmaputra River.
Orang’s Field Director, Pradipta Baruah said the forest guards and casual workers who regularly patrol the park on foot have been worried about the tiger preying on humans after killing one of their colleagues. “We are trying to analyse the home guard’s death as Orang has an ample prey base for tigers not to venture out to kill livestock, let alone humans,” he said.
M. Firoz Ahmed, a feline specialist at the Guwahati-based biodiversity conservation group Aaranyak, agreed that a thorough investigation was needed to decode the tiger’s action. “The striped cat should not be a concern as long as it is not a man-eater. It is possible that the tiger had a kill nearby and the unlucky staff went too close unknowingly,” he told The Hindu.
Injuries were found on the neck and a leg of the home guard and the post-mortem report, awaited from the Mangaldoi Civil Hospital, is expected to reveal if the tiger bit some flesh off. According to the last census released in July 2023, Orang has an estimated 26 tigers.
