GUWAHATI:
A full-grown male Royal Bengal Tiger was rescued by a team of forest officials from Umananda Temple premises in North Guwahati on December 20.
“The age of the animal would be around 8 to 10 years. But it can be ascertained only after identification,” said Aswini Kumar, divisional forest officer (DFO), Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden.
A group of workers engaged in construction work of a boundary wall of the Umananda Temple noticed the animal swimming across the Brahmaputra and informed the forest authorities immediately.
The animal then took shelter at the cleft of the rock on the premises of the temple.
The animal was caught at around 5.30 pm after a prolonged operation of several hours by the team of forest personnel with the help of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and local police personnel.
The darting operation was carried out by Dr Bijay Gogoi of Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden and after successful darting, the animal was taken to Assam State Zoo for necessary health checkup and care.
The animal is yet to be identified and matched with the help of photo recognition software to know its source of migration.
“The forest personnel of Guwahati Range organised the protection duty and the transportation operation smoothly during the rescue of the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger without any harm,” said Pranjal Baruah, Range Officer, Guwahati Forest Range.