A wild adult male tiger that strayed into a residential area in Jharkhand’s Ranchi district and entered a house was successfully tranquilised and relocated to the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) after an hours-long rescue operation by forest officials.
The tiger was spotted on Wednesday morning in Mardu village under Ranchi’s Silli block by a child who quickly ran back into her house. The tiger then followed her inside, officials said.
Jharkhand’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Paritosh Upadhyay told The Indian Express that at around 6.30 am, the Forest Department received information from a field staffer and a local checker monitoring the animal’s movements.
“Initial reports indicated the tiger had taken shelter in someone’s house. It was later confirmed that the animal had entered the home of Purandar Mahto after being seen near a bamboo cluster behind the house,” Upadhyay said.
According to officials, the incident unfolded at around 4.35 am, when a child from the family spotted the tiger near the bamboo grove. Frightened, the child rushed indoors, and the family shut the door. However, the tiger jumped in through a window.
“There was no proper latch, so they held the door shut manually. A window in the room remained open. The plan was to escape through the main door if the tiger entered through the window — and that’s exactly what happened,” the official said, adding: “As the tiger jumped through the window into the inner room, the family ran out and locked the main door from outside.”
Forest staff reached the village by 10 am. Considering the animal’s aggressive nature and the risk to human life, a decision was made to tranquilise and capture it.
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Rescue cages and veterinary teams were mobilised from both the local range and Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR). “Soon after setting up a trap cage at the room’s entry, the tiger entered it in an attempt to get out. It was sedated immediately after,” Upadhyay said.
Forest officials said the tiger was a male and around four-five years old. They said it was a wild tiger, and not an escaped zoo animal. “This is a wild animal that had been previously recorded via camera traps. It is believed to have entered Jharkhand from Chhattisgarh about a couple of years ago,” Upadhyay said.
The tiger had been photographed multiple times in both Palamu and Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary. For over a month, however, it had been untraceable until the sighting in Mardu. “We had occasional signs, pugmarks and local reports but no recent camera-trap confirmations,” said the official.
Once tranquilised, the tiger was moved to PTR, where it has been safely released.
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“This rescue reflects the growing frequency of wild animals entering human spaces and the importance of robust monitoring and conservation corridors,” Upadhyay said.
