MANIT Bhopal to fence gaps in boundary walls after two tigers enter campus

NEW DELHI: The Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal has started mending the gaps in its boundary wall after two tigers entered its sprawling campus in the last fortnight, an official said on Monday.

A tiger named T-123-4 sneaked into the institute on October 3, killed two cows and attacked two other bovines. It is believed to have left the campus a few days ago, a forest official earlier said. This feline's movement was noticed on Monday in Kerwa area, 12 km from MANIT, Bhopal Divisional Forest Officer Alok Pathak told PTI.

Another tiger that had entered the institute possibly on October 8-9 was captured on Sunday and released in the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Narmadapuram, officials said. Tigers from the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, spread in Raisen and Sehore districts close to Bhopal, move in the state capital's Kerwa area. “We have asked the institute authorities to prune some vegetation inside the campus for visibility,” Pathak said.

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The institute is spread over an area of 650 acres including 100 acres of thickets and enveloped by human settlements. Around 5,000 hostellers and 1,000 kin of employees of the institute live on the campus, officials said. "We are fencing the gaps in the boundaries. The work was started on Sunday itself. After this, a concrete boundary wall will be constructed wherever it is needed,” the institute's public relation officer Dr Amit Ojha said.

In light of the tiger's presence, the institute had announced a midterm break for around 5,400 undergraduate students from October 11 to 30 as against such breaks generally given in December, they said, adding that the institute was holding classes for 600-odd students of post-graduate courses. The forest department is not going to remove the 16 trap cameras placed in MANIT for the next three to four days, Pathak said. Three cages with baits put up on the campus will also not be removed, he said, adding that the premises will be monitored for the next few days.