Rare tigress escapes village mob hunt
CALCUTTA, India (AP) - February 20, 2008 The tigress climbed the tree to escape a group of villagers
chasing her and it took nearly 14 hours to tranquilize and catch
her Monday, said Kanti Ganguly, Sunderbans affairs minister of West
Bengal state.
The tigress suffered minor injuries from stones and burning
sticks the frightened villagers threw at her in Deulbari, 150 miles
south of Calcutta, Ganguly said.
Guards nursed her wounds and then took her by boat and released
her Tuesday deep inside the mangrove reserve, said Atanu Raha, the
state's chief conservator of forests.
"Although the tigress received some injuries while being
tranquilized and caught, she was treated and found fit to be
released in the reserve area," Raha said.
The Sunderbans, about 3,860 square miles of marshlands and
mangrove forests along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, is one of
the few remaining natural tiger habitats in India.
Tigers have been slowly disappearing from forests and reserves
in India due to poaching, tourism and a shortage of properly
trained forest guards. Their numbers have dropped from about 3,600
five years ago to about 1,411, the government-run Project Tiger
said last week.
