Khijuri (Rewari): Two days after celebrating Independence Day, the freedom of people living around Jhabua came under serious threat. Reserved forests,
In forests with peaceful animals like nilgai, chinkara and sometimes pigs, Leopard He came there that day and it felt like home.
The forest where children used to frolic and women used to go to collect fodder for their cattle had suddenly become eerie. There was no movement in the surrounding fields. In the houses located within sniffing distance, family members were taking turns to keep an eye on whether any animals were there. Forest,
No one except the forest department tracking teams spotted ST-2303, but the tiger made its presence felt in the villages in every interaction. It was moving around fine, though mostly inside the forest or on its fringes. Camera traps installed by the forest department captured images of it twice. Its footprints were seen along the periphery, near a reservoir and next to fields.
The maximum tension was in Khijuri, Village The closest to the reserve forest — a 3.2 sq km piece surrounded by large stretches of agricultural land — was where ST-2303 strayed. The adult male tiger travelled 125 km from Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan across the Aravallis through bare rock, lush farmland and scrub to reach Jhabua, putting Haryana on the tiger map.
In Khijuri and neighbouring villages like Badhoj, farming has come to a standstill just before the harvesting seasonThere are more than 100 acres of agricultural land around Jhabua forest, in which cotton and millet crops are grown on a large scale.
“We have to start harvesting in the next 10 days. But everyone is scared to go to the fields. We are not able to water the crops. Farmers Mir Singh, the sarpanch of Khijuri, told the Times of India, “Farmers who grow cotton need to remove pests from the crop. Though no one has seen the tiger outside the forest, who can say it won’t suddenly attack? Farmers working in the fields will become easy prey. This is what we fear.”
Many families here have cattle that live in sheds next to houses. Keeping an eye on them has become a full-time job as there is fear that ST-2303 may come to villages for hunting.
Puran Singh, a resident of Khijuri, said, “As soon as it gets dark, we go back inside our homes. Forget about going to the fields, no one is even walking on the roads. We finish our work as quickly as possible, come home and lock the door.”
On August 30, it seemed the ‘captivity’ would end as the tiger retraced its steps and reached Baghana village in Rajasthan. But it changed its mind and returned the next morning, putting the locals on high alert again.
On Saturday morning, hopes were once again raised that the striped visitor would finally leave after its footprints were seen in a village in Rajasthan 5 km away.
Kaushalya Devi and her daughter will see their “house arrest” come to an end if the tiger does not change its mind again. The two live in an isolated area away from the main village and have not ventured out since the tiger’s arrival. They said the villagers are taking away their rations.
The narrow road from Khijuri to Badhoj runs along the edge of fields. In the mornings, it is a quiet walk or cycling ride. In the evenings, especially during the monsoon, the chirping of cicadas seems to be louder. Pradeep has spent the last three weeks listening for unusual things. One of the few people living on this road, he does not have the advantage of distance as some fellow villagers do. If a tiger is hiding in the fields, there is no way to see it. And his house is right on the edge.
Mohan Singh of Badhoj said they have been advised to venture out only in groups of five so that they can protect themselves in case of a tiger attack. “We usually go to the forest to get fodder for the cattle, but now no one is doing so. The poor animals are starving,” he said.
Karan Singh, who lives in the neighbouring Jhabua village, said the worst was that a leopard, a common sight in southern Haryana, had entered his village. “It is beyond imagination that a tiger has become our neighbour,” he said.
There are around nine villages around the reserve forest on the state border, of which six are in Haryana and three in Rajasthan. Each village has a population of around 2,000 and they depend mainly on farming and animal husbandry.
The forest department, after initially trying to tranquillise the tiger, changed tactics and decided to bring two cages from Gir in Gujarat to capture the tiger. “We spoke to the villagers and assured them that all necessary measures are being implemented to safely relocate the tiger, while also ensuring that there are no human-animal conflicts during the process. It is a very dense forest, and it is difficult to go inside on foot. There are no designated trails and trekking into the forest to tranquillise the tiger is difficult. Since it is a young tiger (three years old), it is very active. The tiger is hunting. It has eaten bait (buffalo calves) twice, but it has not been possible to tranquillise it,” Deepak Patil, divisional forest officer, Rewari, told the Times of India.
When asked about the recent migration of the tiger from Jhabua towards Rajasthan, he said, “Identification of its footprints in Jakopur village has confirmed the movement of the tiger towards Sariska.”
Wildlife department officials said that when the tiger came out on August 30, it might have retraced its steps due to heavy rains on the way. It is possible that there might have been human settlements on the way.
Rajesh Chahal, divisional wildlife officer, Gurgaon, said, “The last time the tiger went out of Jhabua, it was seen hiding in the millet fields during the day. So, it is possible that it may decide to visit Jhabua again. ST-2303 may have encountered a large number of humans while attempting to return, and this could be the reason it considers its journey unsafe rather than the rains.”
A team led by the Sariska Ranger reached Jakopur on Saturday afternoon to search for the tiger and veterinarians were called to sedate it.
