Sawai Madhopur News Desk: Incidents of tiger attack have been reported twice in the last two-four days in Ranthambore National Park, famous for tiger safari in Rajasthan. Due to this, there is an atmosphere of panic among the tourists coming to Ranthambore as well as the people living nearby. Local people are citing departmental negligence as a major reason behind the increasing incidents of tiger attacks. According to the information received, there was a sudden commotion in Ranthambore Fort located in the middle of Ranthambore National Park on Wednesday evening when tigress Arrowhead T 84 reached Ranthambore Fort with her three cubs. During this time, a tiger cub of a tigress attacked a devotee who had come for Trinetra Ganesh darshan in Ranthambore Fort.
The tigress remained sitting with 3 cubs for about one and a half hours in Ranthambore Fort.
The good thing was that the tigress’s cub only pounced lightly on the devotee, due to which the devotee’s shirt got torn and the cub got a slight scratch from his nails. But during this time the tigress remained sitting in Ranthambore fort for about one to one and a half hours. The people present at the spot informed the forest department about the incident. About one and a half hour after receiving the information, the Forest Department team reached the spot and somehow rescued the devotees and tourists trapped in Ranthambore Fort. The tigress and the cubs were chased away by the forest staff. During this time, the forest department and local people evacuated about 500-700 people from the fort.
The team arrived two and a quarter hours after informing the forest department at 4 o’clock
The eyewitness, on the condition of anonymity, said that the forest department was informed about the arrival of the tigress at around 4.30 pm, but the forest department team reached the spot after about two and a quarter hours. During this time the people present in Ranthambore Fort remained in panic. It is noteworthy that earlier on Saturday itself, a tiger had attacked a villager who was grazing goats in the field in Ulyana village adjacent to Ranthambore, in which the villager had died.
After the death of the villager, the angry villagers had beaten Tiger to death. The Forest Department did not learn any lesson from the incident that happened on Saturday and even today the Forest Department’s laxity was seen.
Who would be responsible if something happened to the tourists?
Tourists say that if any major incident had happened in Ranthambore Fort during this period, who would have been responsible for it? Regarding the incident, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve’s DFO Ramanand Bhakar says that a cub of tigress Arrowhead had attacked a devotee. He suffered minor nail scratches in the attack. The devotee did not suffer any major injuries. Ranger Kailash Sharma of Ranthambore’s Akadhat range said that all the devotees have been thrown out of Ranthambore fort. And the tigress was also chased away from the spot. As a precautionary measure, photo trap cameras have been installed in Ranthambore Fort. A team of forest workers has been deployed, which is busy monitoring the tigress and the cubs. However, once again the forest officials avoided facing the media cameras.
