MP: In latest search, foresters don't find any sign of tiger that strayed into Bhopal institute, but unsure about its exit

Forest department officials on Saturday said that neither have they come across any fresh pugmarks of the tiger that entered the sprawling campus of the city-based Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology's (MANIT) here 12 days back, nor the camera traps have captured the feline's images in their latest operation.

However, whether the feline has left the campus or still staying put inside is yet to be confirmed as they say it was ''too early'' to draw any conclusion.

The officials have been on the tenterhooks ever since the big cat sneaked into the institute, surrounded by human settlements, on October 3 and killed two cows in the premises.

''Our staffers scanned the footage of 16 camera traps installed inside the MANIT campus this morning. No image of the tiger was captured in any of these cameras since Friday evening. Similarly, our 50-odd men staying put in the institute could not find the animal's pugmarks either since that time,'' Bhopal Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Alok Pathak told PTI.

''It is good news for us after 12 days. The tiger, more than two years of age, was found roaming in a ravine-like area spread over a forest of 300 to 400 acres, which was connected to the thickets on the MANIT campus,'' he said.

Asked whether the striped animal, named T-123-4, has left the campus spread over an area of 650 acres having 100 acres of thickets, he said it would be too early to draw a conclusion.

During the 12-day stay in the Institute campus, the feline has killed two cows and attacked two bovines at MANIT, officials said.

The MANIT campus having accommodation for its staffers and teachers has been cleared of the cattle following the entry of the tiger. The livestock from the campus has been shifted elsewhere. The tiger had started preying easily on them, they added.

After the tiger was caught on camera four days ago, the MANIT has announced a mid-term break for around 5,400 undergraduate students from October 11 to October 30. Students get such breaks in December, its public relations officer Dr Amit Ojha said.

However, the institute is holding classes for 600-odd students doing post-graduation courses, he confirmed.

The MANIT has been holding the classroom sessions for the post-graduate students after assurance from forest officials that the tiger had been barricaded in the forested area of the campus, he said.

A student from the institute expressed happiness that no image of the tiger has not captured since Friday evening.

Pathak said that their three cages with the baits still remain placed inside the MANIT campus. The tiger had come closer to it on one of two counts in the past, he said.

Besides, he said that 16 camera traps are placed inside the institute campus. Some 5,000 hostelers and 1,000 kin of staff live on the campus, he added.

The presence of the big cat in the campus for 12 days had defied the common perception that the big cat moves out one place in seven or eight days.

A tiger forms a territory in an area of 25 sq km and moves within it, killing and resting, tiger experts said.

Tigers from the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, spread in Raisen and Sehore districts close to Bhopal, move in the Kerwa area of the state capital. This time, one of them has strayed into the educational campus, officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)