Tiger roaming in MANIT since one week captured

BHOPAL : A tiger that entered the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology's (MANIT) sprawling campus in Bhopal about a week back was captured on Sunday, a forest official said. This is the second feline to have strayed into the prestigious institute, spread over an area of 650 acres including 100 acres of thickets and enveloped by human settlements, he said. Earlier, 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 two days ago, the official said.

"The tiger captured on Sunday is the other big cat that had entered the institute last week. It ventured into the institute possibly on October 8-9. It walked into one of the three cages put up with baits on the campus. We are going to release the feline in the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Narmadapuram,” Bhopal Divisional Forest Officer Alok Pathak told PTI. “It is not the one that had entered the institute on October 3. We feel that tiger T-123-4 that sneaked into the institute on October 3 left the campus two days ago," Pathak said. The official said 16 cameras have been installed in the institute and their 50-odd employees are still keep a watch on the campus.

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After T-123-4 was caught on cameras six-seven days back ago, the institute had announced a mid-term break for around 5,400 undergraduate students from October 11 to 30. Students get such breaks in December, its public relations officer Dr Amit Ojha said. However, the institute is holding classes for 600-odd students doing post-graduation courses, he confirmed.

The institute was holding classroom sessions for the post-graduate students after assurance from forest officials that the tiger had been barricaded in the forested area of the campus, he said. Around 5,000 hostellers and 1,000 kin of staff live on the campus, he added. Tigers from the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, spread in Raisen and Sehore districts close to Bhopal, move in the Kerwa area of the state capital. This time two of them strayed on to the educational campus, officials said.