Leopard beats Tiger and tops CAT List

IIT-Bombay continues to be the top choice for the best of the young brains with animal spirits  in the country. The institute has retained its position as the most sought-after IIT in the country, with Delhi and Chennai coming a distant second and third.

A number of factors have been responsible for this, ranging from importance given to streams, valleys, green foliage, canal over geography, from placement records to newer short-term courses on offer, tell students.

Students at IIT-Bombay's Powai campus were excited after a leopard was spotted at a research workshop at the institute to conduct his internship. An institute staffer, who went to open the workshop for the day, sighted the leopard around workshop area. What followed was a day of chaos and confusion, as forest officials waited for signs of the animal's movement in and around the building.

So IIT Mumbai started “Who will bell the CAT”, also announced reservation for Big Cats.

IIT-Bombay students on evening used a robot fixed with a camera called Iron Drone to locate the leopard that was spotted in the metallurgical engineering and material science workshop in Powai a day earlier, but forest officials who searched the footage on a laptop were unable to detect any sign of the big cat, but found lot of unrelated material.

A trap, with a bait of four chicks in the lab had been laid, has been unable to attract the animal, who seems to be interested in a thirst for knowledge in this day.

"Many strategies are being planned by the forest officials to trap the animal. The remote-controlled Google-car sent in, did not help. But since the leopard is a nocturnal animal, it gets active at night. He was located once on Wednesday night."

"Animals do not understand business affairs and therefore they settle down wherever they feel that they can get a good place to hide. Probably that's why it went into the lab. The workshop is a less-frequented area and is used by research fellows and not young minded students. Research activities at the workshop will be stalled for a few days, till forest officials confirm that the area is safe".

Forest officials said "leopards generally hunt once in seven days, depending on how hungry they are, considering it is time-consuming and stressful. Tranquilizing the animal seems to be difficult for the forest officials as the exact location of the animal is not known."

However, student spotted the cat late at nightclub during after hours. Chitesh Vaagh, a local rescuer, said as leopards are shy creatures, they don't come out during the day and they are party animals.

Despite keeping forest department officials on their toes for three consecutive days, the big cat smartly managed to escape from the research workshop of IIT-Bombay. On Saturday, after a search, the forest officials handed over the workshop to the IIT.

Forest officials said it was good that the animal had escaped unharmed because had he remained trapped, he would have required to be in captivity for 4-5 days for a medical and Human Resources Examination, after which he would have been released  and only on confirmation from HR executive that it has “No Dues” would it be released in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Such procedures are known to stress the animals a bit.

The advisory further stated that Students should not move around unaccompanied at night as lonely and dark stretched of roads should be avoided in the evening, as they can cause depression.

''When dogs bark, howl or run frantically at night every 6 months, it may be taken as warning of the leopard's presence nearby. However Leopards are afraid of light and crackers bursting. Hence, it is advisable to carry a torch and flick it around like Eveready batteries Ad while moving at night within the campus area'' stated the mail from the Inn-security officer.

Meanwhile, In forest Leopard is reunited with his family...Happily Forever.....

Leopard with his family

Ek tha Tiger

In a shocking incident, When staff at the wildlife sanctuary, released a live goat in the enclosure of a full grown male tiger, they hoped the beast would make a quick kill. To their astonishment and horror, the tiger instead decided to make friends with its intended meal.

For two days, the tiger did not kill the goat despite being hungry. Instead it played with it (hum tum ek kamre bandh hojaye aur chabi kho jaye song playing in background); at one point tiger playfully dumped goat in an artificial waterhole. Officials who watched the sequence of events in dismay are hunting for answers to explain the animal's unnatural behaviour. They are worried that having been raised in captivity, the big cat may have lost its 'hunting' skills.

Officials say that the goat that was spared by their male sibling was released in two tigresses enclosure and instantly killed and consumed by them - this male tiger's unusually docile behaviour has become a cause of concern.

"When the females were rescued they had killed a  m(b)ad dog, milch cow and rich donkey and it seems they still had some hunting skills, but in the case of the male they are evidently missing, he looks like middle class indian men who still believe in arranged marriage rather than love marriage, doubts are being raised" says animal husband'ry officials.

Noting The peculiar condition of the tiger, wildlife activist says," it could be because it was deprived of its mother's training, males require a lot of help from theirs mother to learn how to hunt well".

The flip side of releasing orphaned tigers back in the wild, as noted tiger experts point out, animals are often not adept at finding their own source. They could therefore turn into window shoppers or worse, Mall-rats.

Another wildlife activist added "Males in captivity, also need females to play with whereas females in captivity become more hostile, Males in captivity after some time became docile and timid. its true for all males, female species is always liked as they need her for recreation and entertainment".

Meanwhile Noted feminist says " its nothing unnatural. There are cases when women fall in love with a donkeys and both live happily together and similar is this incident where a tiger has fallen in love with a goat. These two are animals but a human being in love with another animal is something more than natural. This is an example of a natural instinct of a living being. In times of need, living beings are sometimes helpless and the males take advantage of it".