Lakhimpur-Kheri: A lost, scared, lone rhinoceros from Nepal, wandering around this district town for the past eight months, attacked villagers on Saturday night after being cornered and forest officials are now preparing to tranquilise it.
The forest officials, who have tracked the animal since last week and hoped that it finds its way back home to Bardiya National Park in Nepal, have now decided to act, following uproar from local people who fear it might kill someone.
There is also the fear that further exposure also risks its poaching.
"We had approved the tranquilisation... We, however, still prefer the safe way that it finds its way back to Nepal," Conservator of Forests of Lucknow Division, Eva Sharma, told IANS.
Now spooked, the rhino on Saturday attacked a few villagers near the district centre and charged at two forest rangers in Laharpur Forest Range in nearby Sitapur district. Due to its mobility, officials haven't been able to gather much information on the age and sex of the animal.
A rhino had killed a man in Lakhimpur-Kheri district in 2006 in an ugly turn to the man-animal conflict. It was finally caught from Meerut district and shifted to Kanpur Zoo.
The forest officials have now kept the tranquillisation experts and veterinarian from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) on stand-by.
First spotted in May this year, the rhino has been living in its natural habitat of the Terai region in Lakhimpur Kheri, ranging from the grasslands near Dudhwa National Park to the agriculture fields a few kilometres from the city.
A naturally shy animal, the rhino had been living off the people's notice until it was spotted at agricultural fields near here, alarming the farmers. Some experts, however, believe this is the rhino that was spotted in December 2015 wandering near Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary under Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
The rhinos of Nepal, unlike rhinos in Dudhwa, are free-ranging, which means that they are not confined to any area. They often cross the border through two active green corridors — Kataraniaghat along the Sharda and Ghaghra rivers in Bahraich and Lakhimpur Kheri districts, and the second from Lagga Bagha in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh.
