Guwahati: Royal Bengal tiger swimming in Brahmaputra river, video viral | WATCH
A royal Bengal tiger swam 120 kilometres across the Brahmaputra river to a small island before being tranquillised and relocated to the state zoo after a 10-hour journey.
A video of the tiger speed-swimming in the Brahmaputra river has gone viral on the social media. The tiger is seen then slipping into a small cave on Peacock Island, near Guwahati which is well-known for the old Umananda temple.
Watch the viral video here:
On Tuesday morning, a group of temple employees were astounded to see a tiger swimming toward the world’s smallest inhabited island.
The tiger was spotted swimming toward a small cave on the island that receives a large number of visitors each day.
A 10-minute boat ride over the Brahmaputra from Guwahati city separates the Oranga National Park, where the tiger is said to have wandered, from the island. The big cat might have been carried off while sipping water by the Brahmaputra’s powerful currents.
A unit of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which has a base nearby, was alerted, along with the local police, amid widespread panic on the island. Officials from the forest department and a rescue squad, which included veterinarians, sped to the scene on boats.
Due to the tiger’s distance from the riverside, the rescue team had a tough time tranquillizing it. An officer was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that the tiger got wedged between two massive rocks and the rescue crew had to carry out the operation very gently.
It was a difficult task because the tiger could have retreated into the river and drowned if everything went wrong. If it wasn’t completely tranquillized, it might attack the rescue squad.
The official said that the team began to rescue and capture the tiger and then placed it in a cage after being certain that it had been completely tranquillized. The distance between the rocks was fairly little, therefore it took a while to rescue the tiger.
As forest officials ringed the river island and subdued the big cat, pilgrims taking ferry rides to the Umananda Temple were evacuated.
As authorities attempted to trap the tiger, priests were also relocated for their own protection, and stores and other facilities that cater to temple visitors were briefly closed.
Gadadhar Singha, the Ahom King, constructed the Umananda Temple in the final decade of the 17th century.
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