The brief escape of MT-8, or “Kankati” — a tigress associated with two fatal human attacks in Ranthambore — from her designated 82-sq km enclosure in the Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR) caused momentary panic and brought traffic to a halt in the area.
According to Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) Muthu S, the radio-collared tigress, which slipped out of the enclosure on Tuesday morning, eventually “returned to its place in the forest later in the day.”
Kankati had been relocated to MHTR on June 19 after she “gained notoriety for two human kills in the Ranthambore forest range earlier this year.”
Following a two-month stay in a smaller 21-hectare enclosure, she was reintroduced into the wild on August 15, when officials moved her to the 82-sq km enclosure in the Dara forest area.
Around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Kankati exited her designated zone and crossed a road, prompting panic among commuters as vehicles were stopped on both sides.
Cattle fled upon sensing the big cat, while several passersby, including police personnel, recorded the tigress on their mobile phones as she moved across.
DCF Muthu said the animal “crossed the Batwada road, which is a part of MHTR, before returning to her enclosure in the Dara forest range later in the day.”
He added that the tigress is “radio-collared and tracked by three forest teams round the clock,” and that the area had already been cordoned off as a precaution.
Forest teams have maintained heightened vigilance ever since a tigress was fatally run over by a train after straying from the Ranthambore range two decades ago, the official noted.
However, wildlife enthusiast Brijesh Vijayvergiya criticised the forest department, attributing the incident to “careless” monitoring and “inadequate” safety measures.
“Taking a lesson from the accidental death of a tigress 20 years ago, the forest department should have erected fencing to prevent wild animals from crossing the road or the railway track. In the absence of fencing, the tigress Kankati ventured out and crossed the road, thus risking her life,” Vijayvergiya told PTI.