Next time a tiger strays into a village in the Sunderbans, forest officials hope capturing it will be a tad less difficult.
Their confidence stems from two new guns. Not to kill but to put the beast to sleep.
The two tranquilliser guns, formally called “remote syringe projectors”, were handed over to the South 24-Parganas forest division on July 1.
The new guns are lighter and more effective than the older ones in the department’s arsenal, said officials.
The scope — which helps shooters to hit targets with long-range accuracy — is better in the new guns, forest personnel said. One of the guns is double-barreled, meaning a shooter can fire a second time if the first shot misses thetarget.
“These guns can be possible game changers in our efforts to sedate and capture tigers that stray into human settlements,” said Milan Mandal, divisional forest officer of the South 24-Parganas forest division.
“Ultimately, sedating a tiger or an elephant depends on the capability of the man behind the machine. But a sophisticated machine helps,” he added.
Usually, trap cages are the go-to option for forest personnel if a tiger strays into a village. Darting a tiger is challenging because it is extremely agile and adept at hiding. “But these lightweight guns are easier to manoeuvre,” Mandal said.
The staff in the division have undergone basic training in using the guns. An advanced training is due.
Tranquilliser guns typically have a dart that contains a syringe-kind of a canister filled with a tranquillising agent. The dosage of the sedative is adjusted according to the type and body weight of the animal.
The tiger habitat in the South 24-Parganas division of the Sunderbans is made of the Matla, Raidighi and Ramganga ranges, measuring around 1,100sqkm.
Between December 2021 and February 2022, at least eight tigers had strayed into villages or their fringes in the mangrove delta. Most of the incidents were reported from the South 24-Parganas division.
Each tiger was eventually captured and released back into the forest.
No human life was lost but each intrusion triggered panic among villagers.
Guns in the existing repertoire of the forest department in the Sunderbans use gunpowder in the cartridge. When the trigger is pulled, the gunpowder creates friction that fires the dart.
“The new guns replace gunpowder with carbon capsules in the cartridge. Each capsule can be used to fire around 25 darts, much more than what one dose of gunpowder can do,” said Samrat Paul, field officer of the Sundarban Tiger Project of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), which provided the guns.
“The new equipment will greatly enhance the capacity of forest department staff to handle tiger-straying cases and reduce man-wild conflict in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve,” said Prosenjit Sheel, who heads the WTI project.