The island on which the tiger has strayed into. Telegraph picture

Patna, Dec. 4: The state environment and forests department is playing it safe as far as keeping tabs on the tiger that strayed from Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) is concerned.

It pressed into service 16 trained tiger trackers today from the reserve to the riverine area, spread over Saran and Vaishali districts, where the tiger was last sighted on Friday and signs of its presence in the same area were found on Saturday.

In addition to the tiger trackers, VTR director Santosh Tiwari, too, was asked to come down to the camp office, which has been set up near Sonepur, for co-ordinating the work related to collecting information about the movement of the strayed tiger and also to mobilise manpower and resources in case of any incident of tiger’s encounter with the locals.

Citing reasons for pressing into service tiger trackers from VTR, Bihar chief wildlife warden D.K. Shukla said: “They are trained persons as far as gathering information about the movement of tigers is concerned. Their presence in the area, till the strayed tiger is captured or it returns to its place of origin itself, would help in keeping a better track on its movement.”

He said the VTR director was asked to visit the spot so that he could guide the field officials about the way they had to work in a given situation.

Tiwari told The Telegraph over phone from the camp office set up near Sonepur to monitor the strayed tiger: “I briefed the field officials and the tiger trackers about the way they have to carry out the entire operation as our prime target is not to disturb the animal. I also briefed the local officials about the odour of the tiger body, which one can smell even when the tiger is around 50 metre away, so that they could keep a better track on the movement of the feline.”

He added the content of the National Tiger Conservation Authority letter sent to the state government was also discussed during the meeting.

As far as the present location of the tiger is concerned, it is still believed to be on the 3km long mid-channel island, which has tall grasses.

“Though signs of tiger entering the grassland on the island were seen, no sign of the animal moving out from the place was found when our team visited the island on Sunday,” said assistant conservator of forest S.C. Verma, who has been given the responsibility of co-ordinating the field operation.