Captured after killing 5, man-eater finds a new home in Lucknow zoo

LUCKNOW: The terror of Khareta forests will now have just an enclosure to himself. The tiger from UP's Lakhimpur Kheri which recently killed five people near Mailani range and was tranquillised and caught after a prolonged hunt on Wednesday has been shifted to the Lucknow zoo.
Experts, who were surprised at the size of the animal, told TOI that the tiger would be kept in an isolated ward to check for any infection.
Dr Brijendra Yadav, a veterinary surgeon at Lucknow zoo who was part of the team that eventually tranquillised the big cat, said, "We were surprised at the size of the tiger. Nine feet long, the animal weighed more than 300 kg and it took a dozen people to lift it up. The body weight of the tiger was more than normal, which had slowed its movements, rendering it unfit to hunt." But then, it was not just weight and size that slo wed the tiger down. The big cat has disabilities that didn't let him hunt his normal prey -like cataract in one eye and a decayed right-upper canine.
In fact, a few days after the joint team of forest officials and cops were pressed into service to catch the tiger, they realised that the animal wouldn't fit into the cage they had built for it. A bigger cage was brought, but this too was just about enough, hardly leaving any extra room for the animal.
"Though the tiger is 6-8 years old, which is considered young for the species, this one is unfortunate to have such disabilities which forced it to come out of the forest and pounce upon easy prey, " Yadav said. Experts suspect that the tiger may also be deaf.