Combing operation for man-eating tiger in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow, Nov 14 (IANS) A man-eating tiger has strayed into a village in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit district, following which the state forest department has launched an intensive combing operation, officials said Friday.

'We are making all-out efforts to trap the tiger, which is hiding in sugarcane fields in Bilsanda village in Pilibhit,' divisional forest officer (DFO) Pramod Kumar told IANS by phone.

He said elephants have also been deployed to drive the tiger away from the village in Pilibhit, over 250 km from here.

Even as a youth was reported killed by the tiger Nov 10, forest officials confirmed the death Thursday evening after recovering the body in the fields.

According to forest officials, the tiger has come from Pilibhit's Dewaiya forest range, where one tiger was reported as per the tiger census in 2007.

'But, now it seems there are more tigers in the reserve. Probably, some tigers have migrated here from the nearby forest reserves,' said Kumar.

Pilibhit's Mala forest range is home to about ten tigers.