Family wakes up to surprise visitor in bedroom: A tiger

RANCHI/SILLI/PURULIA/KOLKATA: "Bhagwan Krishna ne aaj bacha liya (Lord Krishna has saved us today)," said farmer Puran Chand Mahto, 55of Mardu village in Ranchi district's Silli block, still unable to believe his luck at being alive to tell the tale of how he and his family - his three daughters and a relative, who is a minor - slept peacefully while a tiger silently crouched in a corner of the same room.

Around 4.30am Wednesday, Puran was getting ready for the day. As he stepped out of his three room house into the courtyard, he asked his daughter, Savita, a Class IX student, to bring out the cattle for grazing. Moments later, her shrieks sent a chill down his spine.

Savita had found a seven-foot-long tiger inside their room - which had only one door - and screamed: "Baba, baag... (Father, tiger)!"

"All hell broke loose as my two other daughters and the relative were still sleeping inside," Puran told TOI over the phone. His wife and son were away to attend a wedding in a nearby village in West Bengal.

"Savita rushed inside briefly to wake up the others. I also went in and asked the girls to run to the other side of the room," Puran said.

"Soon, the tiger jumped into another room through a window that had no grille and stood there. I then asked the girls to run out of the house. As soon as we escaped, we locked the iron door from outside and called for help," Puran added.

The big cat may have sneaked into the house early in the morning when Puran had gone to the courtyard leaving the door open. Instances of leopards and other wild animals straying into houses had earlier been reported in Jharkhand, but it was the first time that a tiger had strayed into someone's house.

The news sent district authorities into a tizzy, and the forest department rushed a team to control the situation. Senior forest officials arrived at the spot to oversee the operation. The house was covered with nets, and prohibitory orders were imposed to check any gathering at the site. A local police officer told TOI that they had roped in additional personnel to prevent any unwanted incident. "There was a crowd of nearly 1,000 villagers... it was a big task for us to ensure their safety," the officer said.

Around 4pm, a special team from Palamu Tiger Reserve reached the village, and aided by personnel from Ranchi forest division, managed to trap the tiger - a male aged about five years. The team placed a cage, fitted to a rescue van, in front of the door and lured the big cat out. "Even before placing the bait, the tiger entered the cage and got trapped. It was then tranquillized so that it wouldn't get injured. We had to dart it twice. Around 6.45pm, we left for Ranchi's Bhagwan Birsa Zoo where the tiger will undergo tests," an official said.

Jharkhand's chief wildlife warden Paritosh Upadhyay said, "If the tiger is fit, we will release it in a nearby tiger reserve with a radio collar in consultation with the National Tiger Conservation Authority."

The village is located on the banks of the Subarnarekha river, about 60km from Ranchi city and barely 500m from Purulia in West Bengal. It is believed that the same tiger had passed through the stretch - from Palamu Tiger Reserve in Jharkhand to Purulia's Jhalda forest range sever,al times this year, beginning Jan.