Angul: The fear of Royal Bengal tigress ‘Sundari’ continued to haunt the villagers residing near the Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary in Angul district after it killed a bullock at Tainsi village near Baghamunda Monday.
The bullock was gazing near Baghamunda at Satkosia Tiger Reserve when the big cat attacked and killed it.
Meanwhile, a team, comprising experts from the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT), Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar and gun assistants and officials of Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, has reached Satkosia.
However, the team is yet to proceed to Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary due to the prevailing tension at Tainsi village, reports said.
As per the plan, the tigress will be kept in an enclosure after being tranqualised, said PCCF Sandeep Tripathy.
The Royal Bengal tigress Sunday had mauled Trinath Sahu (60) to death near Tainsi village when he had gone to a nullah for fishing in the wee hours.
On being informed, a team of forest officials reached the village.
The villagers reportedly thrashed them and detained assistant conservator of forests (ACF) Srikant Behera.
Besides, the villagers vandalised the van of Angul Superintendent of Police.
The angry villagers also locked five forest officials who were engaged in tracking the movement of the cub in a house.
They also staged a demonstration demanding immediate translocation of the tigress, compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the bereaved families and job for a kin of the deceased.
They also demanded the scrapping of cases filed against people who had set a beat house afire after the death of a woman at Hatibari.
Hours after killing Trinath, the tigress attacked a local journalist. Raghunath Sahu, a reporter of a private news channel, was attacked when he had gone to the spot to collect information about the incident.
He was admitted to Angul district headquarters hospital in a critical condition, reports said.
Prior to this incident, the tigress attempted to kill a motorcyclist who managed to escape near a bridge in Tarabha inside Satkosia sanctuary near Purunakote in Angul district Saturday.
The man was identified as Sanjay Pradhan of Hinjadoli in Tainsi panchayat.
According to Sanjay, he was on his way to Hatibari village when he noticed some forest officials and a monitoring team near the bridge.
He then noticed the tigress and tried to speed away but the animal leapt on him. However, he had a close shave after the claws of the tigress landed on his pillion.
Sundari had allegedly mauled a 35-year-old woman to death at Hatibari village September 12 when she was taking bath in a pond near the forest.
The incident triggered violence as scores of villagers demanded the relocation of the tigress.
