From West Champaran village, a tiger was saved.

PATNA/BAGAHA: The villagers of Nayka Tola in Gaunaha range of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran district had a harrowing time as a 10-year-old Royal Bengal tiger remained in a thatched house since Saturday morning before a team of forest officials rescued the ‘big cat’ after six-hour-long operation. The tiger had strayed out of Manguraha forest of the VTR area in search of a prey. One Birendri Devi, wife of Kamalesh Uraon, saw the tiger around 5am when she was sleeping inside her house with her three children. She raised an alarm and fainted. The tiger entered her house and hid under the bed. The villagers informed the rescue team and took out the children from the house safely.The VTR rescue team, led by DFO Praduman Gaurav, Maguraha forests range officer Sunil Pathak, veterinary doctor Rajiv Ranjan and others succeeded in tranquillizing the tiger after six hours of their efforts and took it out from the house in an unconscious state. Gaurav said the tiger was sent to Rajgir Zoo Safari for better medical care. The tiger was fit and fine, except having cataract in its right eye. It seems the tiger would not be able to do natural hunting and entered the village in search of easy prey (goat and cattle), he said. “The tiger was escorted through a green corridor created from Bettiah, Motihari and Muzaffarpur with the coordination of the district police,” he told TOI.The DFO said the male tiger did not attack anyone and took shelter in a house.“Ou ur response team immediately reached the village and cordoned off the house using white cloth. We left an opening for the tiger, as the forest is only about 1.5km away from the village,” Gaurav said. He said they tried all means to scare the tiger so that it could enter the forest area naturally, but it did not budge. “Then we decided to tranquillize it and sought permission from the chief wildlife warden. The veterinarian shot a tranquillizing dart at 10.49am after making a hole in the thatched wall. The tiger was brought back to Manguraha forest and put under medical observation,” the DFO said. Earlier, at least 10 people were killed in seven months by a man-eater tiger identified as ‘T-104’, which was killed by a Bihar police team in October last.