The tiger that had been straying into a village in the Sunderbans in the last few days was captured in one of the trap cages set up by the forest officials late on Tuesday.
According to a forester, the tiger has been spotted several times in the paddy fields skirting Bhubaneswari village under Maipith Coastal police station in the last few days.
The village is around 96km from Calcutta and 27km from Kultali town.
A forester said the tiger was in the paddy field and a couple of cages with live bait inside were set up on the field.
“We were aware that the tiger had not made a kill in the past couple of days and was possibly hungry so we placed live bait inside both the cages. At night we could hear it moving around the field and it got attracted to the bait inside the cage and walked into it,” said the official.
According to another senior forester the tiger appeared to be healthy and they will release it back into the wild after they get clearance from veterinarians.
Earlier in the day, the forest department and the police had cordoned off portions of the area and the paddy field with nylon nets propped up on bamboo poles.
On Tuesday afternoon, teams equipped with tranquilliser guns tried to tranquillise the big cat but as the crops have not been harvested yet the foresters faced a visibility problem and could not take the shots properly.
“The height of the paddy crops provided perfect cover for the tiger,” said Milan Mondal, the divisional forest officer of the South 24-Parganas division, who visited the village on Tuesday.
The forests of the Indian Sunderbans have nylon net fencing spanning over 200km, mostly along the major rivers in the Sunderbans.
Debal Ray, the chief wildlife warden, said it was possible that the tiger had crossed over one of the numerous small creeks that form and ebb during the high and low tides. “While a major portion of the riverbanks are fenced near the village, numerous creeks form as well as ebb during high and low tides. We think that the tiger might have crossed one of the creeks and entered the village.”
A team of foresters had also tried to provide a safe passage for the big cat to the Matla river. They tried to drive the tiger away using flashlights and firecrackers but the distance proved to be too long.
According to an officer of Maipith police station, many people from the village as well as its adjoining areas had come to spot the tiger and tried to take photographs.
“We had to constantly tell them to stay away from the field using loud haulers,” said the officer.
Before nylon nets were set up, around 10 tiger intrusions were reported every year. Many more would go unreported.
Since 2012, when the net project was complete, the intrusions have come down to around one or two every year, said forest officials.