Tamuli Pathar Village , Kaziranga : A large adult tigress, suspected to be the mother of the two cubs rescued from this village on Sunday, severely mauled the mahout of an Assam forest department elephant, which had rangers trying to dart her on Wednesday morning.

The 25-year-old mahout, Satya Pegu, who was badly injured, lost three fingers on his left hand and is in the hospital. Doctors are worried about his left arm, which was badly lacerated by the tigress. The Wildlife Trust of India and its partner, the International Fund for Animal Welfare have offered to cover his medical expenses.

The forest department received a message early on Wednesday morning regarding a large tiger which had killed two cows near the village, which is close to the boundary of the Kaziranga National Park(KNP) in the north-eastern Assam state.

By 10 am a joint team of the Assam forest department including the director of the park, Mr N.K.Vasu, the local administration, police and the army, and the Wildlife Trust of India(WTI)-managed Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) was combing the area with five elephants trying to locate the animal.

“From the pugmarks, it looked like a very large female, which led us to suspect that this may be the mother of the two cubs that we had rescued and released on Monday,” Dr Bhaskar Choudhary, CWRC veterinarian, who was involved in darting the two sub-adult tigers on Sunday, said. The tigers were released late on Monday evening in the eastern part of the Agoratuli range near the Matiaranga guard hut.

“After looking around everywhere, we first spotted the tigress in a bamboo grove near the village. As it sensed our presence it moved into the backyard of a hut and then quickly walked into a nearby paddyfield,” Dr Chaudhary said.

Range officer, Dharanidhar Bodo, Dr Chaudhary along with a guard were riding the elephant, Joymala, driven by the Pegu. Bodo was carrying the darting gun. As the elephant moved towards the tigress, it did a mock charge and as the guard fired two blanks to discourage her, she ran away into the next field, where the paddy was thick and hid there.

” We cautiously moved towards it again and could get to almost 20 feet. She was growling away and as Bodo could see her, he took a shot with the dartgun. The dart missed her and this enraged her so much that she came charging and climbed up the elephant from the front and mauled Pegu who was trying to defend himself with the metal ankush, ” Dr Chaudhary said.

“It all happened in a few seconds and before we knew what both Bodo and the guard had fallen down and the Joymala had caught the tigress and thrown it off. People on other elephants were firing in the air and in the ensuing commotion the tigress fortunately did not attack the two on the ground and just ran away,” he narrated.

Meanwhile, the elephant, which was also injured, was trying to aggressively chase the tigress, was calmed by the CWRC veterinarian, who was holding on to the profusely bleeding mahout. “His fingers were hanging by few shreds of tissue and I tried to tourniquet the wounds,” he said. He was soon rushed to the nearby Golaghat district hospital, where he is stated to be out of danger, but in extreme pain.

The two sub-adult tigers had strayed out of the heavily wooded Agoratuli range of the KNP into the neighbouring Tamuli Pathar village close to the national highway. It was speculated that the mother could be nearby, but she could not be spotted.

KNP has one of the highest density of tigers among the protected areas in India , but are difficult to see due to the thick vegetation in this grassland-dominated park.

The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) is a joint venture of the Assam forest department and the Wildlife Trust of India, and is supported by its partner the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). This rescue and rehabilitation facility for animals of the region is a first of its kind facility in India has handled over 300 animals in the last two years including mega-herbivores like elephants, rhinos and wild buffaloes. These were the first tigers brought to the facility in two years of its existence.