Elephants to be deployed to trap tigers in Ralegaon-Kelapur forest belt

Four elephants will be being deployed to trap tigers which have reportedly killed 13 persons in the last few months in the Ralegaon-Kelapur forest belt of Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, a senior official said Sunday.

Deputy Conservator of Forests A Abharna said that the four elephants would arrive in Ralegaon here from Madhya Pradesh in a week's time.

The official said that a tiger, a tigress, and two cubs are moving about in the area for the past one-and-half years and are believed to be behind the attacks on people in villages nearby.

However, the official added, that it was not known which among the group of four tigers had turned man-eater. Besides plans to deploy trained elephants, the forest department had set up 63 camera traps as well as solar lamps at various spots in the forest belt to get a sighting of the tigers, the official said.

Bhavana Gawali, Lok Sabha MP from Yavatmal-Washim, demanded that the tigers be trapped quickly and the kin of those who had died in attacks by the big cats be compensated.

The Shiv Sena MP claimed that the presence of four quarries close to the forests and the expansion of a cement factory in the Tippeshwar-Tadoba tiger corridor was causing these man-animal conflicts.

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