Ramnagar: In a surprising incident, a tiger strategically killed a 20-year-old adult elephant after chasing the latter continuously for four days. This incident took place in Uttarakhand’s Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Bijrani range two days ago.
In its tactical triumph, the tiger first isolated the tiger from the herd and exhausted it by now allowing it to have proper food, water and sleep, and finally killed it after four days’ chase.
Cunningly separated the jumbo from the herd
In the Bijrani zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve, a tiger cunningly separated an elephant from its herd and kept it running hungry and thirsty in the forest for four days. Eventually, when the elephant collapsed from exhaustion, the tiger killed it. Forest rangers discovered the body of a 20-year-old male elephant on the safari route in the Bijrani range. Forest officials stated that the tiger initially attacked the elephant’s leg, causing it to become separated from the herd, giving the tiger an opportunity to hunt. The tiger continued to attack the weakened elephant at various points in the forest. In an attempt to escape, the elephant was running desperately to save its life.
Tiger’s fatal assault confirmed
Rahul Mishra, Deputy Director of the Corbett Tiger Reserve, confirmed that the postmortem report by veterinarians Dr. Dushyant Sharma and Dr. Rajiv Kumar supported the tiger’s fatal assault.
“This is neither surprising nor unnatural. Such cases happened in the past. Generally, tigers attack smaller animals which they can easily overpower, but they target larger animals particularly when they hunt in groups. It is a simple equation between prey and predators,” said Saket Badola, Director, Corbett Tiger Reserve. According to a wildlife expert AG Ansari, eight years ago, a tiger had killed and eaten an elephant in Dhikala in the same manner.
It doesn’t happen every day, says wildlife experts
Wildlife experts do not see it as a rare incident. “Tigers are known for killing their prey strategically. Generally, they look for animals small in size. Attacking elephant calves is a normal thing for tigers. In this incident, the tiger killed an adult elephant and such cases do not happen every day,” Bilal Habib, senior scientist who is associated with the Wildlife Institute of India, told this reporter. He has done his research on the behaviour of predators.
