Tiger turns up near Pilibhit court, judge takes 'serious cognizance'

PILIBHIT: A tiger turned up a mere 250 yards from the district court in Pilibhit while it was in session on Thursday, triggering panic. District judge DK Sharma took “serious cognizance” of the matter and directed the forest authorities to ensure tigers do not come near the court in future.
The tiger was spotted chasing a cow near the district court on Thursday afternoon.Witnesses said people raised a hue and cry, distracting the tiger from mauling the cow. Within seconds, the big cat disappeared amid the dense and high shrubs along Pilibhit-Lipulekh highway near the district court and judicial officials’ colony.
Divisional forest officer of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve Kailash Prakash and sub divisional officer KP Singh rushed to the spot after being informed. The two forest officials confirmed by the pug marks at the site that the animal was an adult. They were of the view that the tiger was one that had strayed from PTR on July 15 and had been spotted between Bilgavan village and Burj Gautia, near a government polytechnic institute on Wednesday. Pilibhit city is some 7 km from PTR.
Fearing that the life of people in the court complex was at risk, forest officials immediately summoned two elephants from Bankati forest post for conducting combing operations among the shrubs along the road.
A local shooter, Dr SK Rathaur, was also called to help locate and tranquilize the big cat. But the tiger could not be located as the vegetation in the area is dense and adjoins the nearby sugarcane fields.
DFO Prakash said that the operation was suspended in the evening and forest force personnel were deployed in the area to keep vigil in case the tiger returned and prevent it from entering the city. The search operation would be resumed on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, a delegation of senior lawyers, including SR Rathaur, president of the central bar association, and Kishan Lal, president of the joint bar association, met district judge DK Sharma to seek his intervention in the matter.
After returning from the meeting, SR Rathaur told TOI that the district judge assured the lawyers that he would direct the DFO to ensure safety of the people on court premises by deploying forest guards, especially on the northern side, which has no boundary wall and adjoins agricultural fields.
Rathaur said Sharma also agreed to order the social forestry officials to remove the dense bushes from both the sides of Bankati Road as well as Pilibhit-Lipulekh highway, at least up to the city’s outskirts.
Rathaur expressed fears that the tiger could maul commuters and morning walkers on the road.