Rescued Tiger Cub Sent Back to Assam Park After Net Entanglement

A three-month-old tiger cub rescued from a village home in Assam has been released back into the wild. Forest officials freed the young carnivore after its forelimbs became tangled in a kitchen garden net at Natungaon village in the Biswanath district on September 17. Experts believe the cub wandered into the area after strong river currents separated it from its mother.

Rescue and Release

A rescue team first surveyed nearby riverine islands to search for the mother and kept the cub under veterinary observation at the Central Range Office of Kaziranga's Biswanath Division. Kaziranga Field Director C. Ramesh stated that the team moved the cub to an upstream riverine island after finding information and evidence that a mother with cubs stayed there recently. A drone survey later prompted officials to shift the cub to a safer spot due to rising water levels. Before leaving, workers installed a camera trap at the release site.

Monitoring and Elephant Treatment

Wildlife Trust of India representative Panjit Basumatary noted that workers found fresh pugmark evidence two hundred metres from the release site on September 23, and camera-trap monitoring will continue for several weeks. Separately, a team of Wildlife Trust of India and Assam Forest Department specialists treated an injured male wild elephant at Kacharigaon Tea Estate in the Sonitpur district. The elephant had a spear-related injury on its left foreleg with severe swelling, along with corneal opacity and suspected partial vision loss in its left eye. Vets chemically immobilised the animal, cleaned and dressed the pus-filled leg wounds, and treated its left eye with a subconjunctival injection.