Injured Royal Bengal tiger undergoing treatment at Alipore zoo

Kolkata, Feb 23(UNI) The stray Royal Bengal tiger, captured by West Bengal Forest Department at a village near Sundarbans yesterday, was undergoing treatment at Alipore zoo for the injuries it suffered, officials today said.

" The tiger has suffered multiple injuries and caught an infection. It is undergoing treatment under the supervision of a three-member team of veterinary experts at the zoo hospital.

However, it is not yet out of danger," doctors said.

The male big cat, which had strayed into Jharkhali village, close to the Sunderbans tiger reserve forest in South Twentyfour Parganas district, was brought to the Alipore Zoological Garden hospital here late last night after Forest Department personnel tracked it down on the pugmarks it left.

Doctors attending on the ten-year-old tiger said the animal with ten wounds on its body, including a gash on the left hind leg and one of its claws was missing, which seemed to have been cut off for reasons unknown to them.

Forest officials observed that there was no immediate possibility of the tiger being released in the forest as it would take at least one-and-a-half month for the wounds to heal.

They said the tiger might have strayed out of the Sunderbans forest in search of food.

On Monday last, a pregnant tigress was captured and then released into the wild after it strayed into a South 24 Parganas village.

While the latest tiger census did not cover the Sundarbans, forest officials said there were 249 tigers in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve and 279 in greater Sundarbans when the census was last conducted in 2001-02.

UNI KDG KK RN1938