Ranchi, June 25 (IANS) Panic gripped Mardu village in Kocho Panchayat under Silli block of Ranchi district in Jharkhand early Wednesday morning after a full-grown tiger strayed into a residential house and remained holed up inside for over 12 hours.

The big cat reportedly entered the home of Puran Chand Mahato around 4.30 a.m. on Wednesday, just as Mahato returned from his night shift at the Hindalco factory in Muri.

As he stepped out to tend to his goats, he came face-to-face with the tiger. Thinking quickly, Mahato ushered his two daughters out of the house and locked the iron door behind them, trapping the predator inside.

Word of the incident spread like wildfire, drawing thousands of curious onlookers to the scene.

Authorities imposed prohibitory orders around the house by 11 a.m., restricting movement within a 200-metre radius on the orders of Ranchi Sadar SDO.

An eerie calm hung over the village even as forest officials and police personnel scrambled to manage the crowd and coordinate rescue efforts.

A local resident managed to take a partial image of the tiger through a hole drilled into the wall, which showed that the animal was crouched inside one of the rooms.

The Forest Department first dispatched a rescue team from Birsa Biological Park in Ormanjhi, but their attempts to tranquilize and capture the tiger were unsuccessful.

Subsequently, senior officials called in a more experienced unit from the Betla Tiger Reserve in Palamu.

As of 4.30 p.m., the tiger — estimated to be 6 to 7 feet long and suspected to be a Royal Bengal Tiger — remained locked inside the house.

The area, located near the West Bengal border, occasionally sees movement of wildlife, but an incident of this nature is extremely rare.

A full-scale operation involving tranquilizer guns and wildlife experts is underway, with hopes of capturing the tiger safely before nightfall.

–IANS

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