Tigress that strayed into Pilibhit village, now under surveillance

A tigress that entered a village in Pilibhit, India, in December 2023 is now back in the forest but remains under surveillance through a radio collar to detect any potential diseases. The initiative aims to monitor for delayed symptoms, with the tigress being found fit to return to the core forest area. The radio collar allows for real-time tracking, with teams monitoring the tigress's movements for any signs of distress or illness.

The tigress that entered Village Atkona, in Pilibhit, in December 2023, is now roaming free in the forest. However, the big cat remains under surveillance through a radio collar that sends its live location, to detect possible diseases that may show up.

A tigress on a wall in Atkona village of district Pilibhit (HT File Photo)

The initiative, forest officers said, has been taken to discover any disease having delayed symptoms, which may trouble the animal. “Rescued wild animals found fit are to be returned to the forest and this is done within a couple of days, else they won’t survive. Tests done by the lab at the Indian Veterinary and Research Institute (IVRI) found the animal fit to be left in the core forest area. But some illnesses show delayed symptoms such as canine distemper that can show symptoms even after seven days. To gather information about any such illness we decided to put on radio collar on the feline,” said a senior forest officer.

The radio collar helps get a live location of the animal and teams are watching regular/irregular movements of the big cat. “If the tigress remains stable for long unnaturally, it will indicate something wrong and our teams will get an alert and they can reach out to the animal,” said the officer.

“Four days have gone by, and her movement is fine. We will still monitor the animal for the next few days after which the surveillance will be stopped. But the success of this attempt will pave the way for future such initiatives among rescued animals,” said additional principal chief conservator of forest Sunil Chaudhary.

Canine distemper had killed several lions between 2014 and 2016 in U.P.