Calcutta, Feb. 17: A tigress strayed into a Sunderbans village this evening and perched itself on a banyan tree when chased by its panic-stricken residents.

Villagers had cordoned off the tree with fishing nets and waited for it to walk into the trap along with a police team till late into the night.

Sunderbans affairs minister Kanti Ganguly said forest officials had been called. The police, he added, would ensure that the animal wasn’t harmed at Deulbari in Kultali, about 250km from Calcutta.

Ganguly said the animal’s movement suggested that it was pregnant.