New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed for maintaining status quo for now on shifting a tiger who has allegedly become a man-eater back to the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Tiger 24 has given up eating after it was shifted out of the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. He will continue to stay at a rescue centre in Udaipur where he was transferred after mauling a forest guard to death.
The apex court also directed the Rajasthan High Court to hear the matter on an urgent basis on May 28.
Tiger 24 or Ustaad was shifted to the Sajjangarh Biological zoo after it allegedly mauled a 44-year-old forest guard to death in Ranthambore. "The incident occurred at around 6 PM when one of our forest guards, Rampal Mali, who was on duty, was attacked about 500 meters from the entrance gate by a tiger," a forest department official said.
Since the tiger is not eating dead meat, forest officials are trying to feed it 'live bait'.
Ustaad has allegedly attacked three other people in the last 8 years.
The tiger was reportedly shifted out abruptly and discreetly. The Forest Ministry is in the process of setting up a committee to examine the decision.
Ranthambhore in Sawai Madhopur was declared one of the Project Tiger reserves in 1973 and became a national park in 1980. The park is spread over an area of 1,300 square km including the buffer zone.
Besides an estimated over 60 tigers including cubs, other wildlife found in the park includes leopard, nilgais, dhole, wild boar, sambar, hyena, sloth bear and chital. It is also home to a wide variety of trees, plants, birds and reptiles.
(With inputs from IANS)
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