Daltonganj: A male adult tiger, which was released in the soft release centre of the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) last month after it was rescued by foresters from a house in Ranchi’s Silli area, has overcome the initial trauma and is on a hunting spree, officials said on Sunday. PTR deputy director (south) Kumar Ashish said, “The tiger was in shock due to various reasons at first. First, it spent around 12hours in a locked room of the house, where it had strayed into at Silli. The house had six goats but it was so frightened that it didn’t prey on any of the six goats. Secondly, a wild tiger, other than a zoo tiger, behaves aggressively when caged. It was caged for 12 hours. Third, the tiger was tranquilised before it was made to travel around 170 km from Silli to the PTR in a rescue van. All these had a devastating effect on the mood and appetite of the tiger.”PTR sources said the tiger was upset with the new environs in the soft release centre. “It had refused food for about a week. Our field director S R Natesh suggested we give analgesic and antibiotic with the water in our cemented water trough in the soft release centre. The medicated water did wonders. The tiger’s appetite is back. It has hunted three animals in 20 days. It is enjoying food at its own leisure,” Ashish added.
