Sighted once again near Maharajnagar area of Elainganj forest, the big cat was tranquilised in the evening during combing. The tiger will be put in quarantine in Lucknow zoo and its relocation will be decided on later.

“The pug marks matched with those taken earlier, confirming that it is the one we wanted. Because it is a maneater, it cannot be released in the wild,” said Chief Wildlife Warden BK Patnaik.

The tiger, which strayed from the Kishanpur sanctuary, was declared a man-eater on February 19 after it killed five people. The presence of the big cat was reported from the Maharajnagar area of Elainganj forest on Saturday. With its last kill made four days ago, the forest department expected it to strike again anytime. Fresh reports came in on Sunday afternoon, when the tiger killed a calf.

But it managed to evade the forest officials. “Later, when we observed that the carcass was dragged away a little further from the original spot, we built a machaan and waited,” said Patnaik. “When the tiger came back for its kill, it was tranquilised by the Wildlife Trust of India officials.”

This was the second tiger to be declared a maneater in UP lately. The first was shot dead in Faizabad last week. It had strayed from Pilibhit forests and travelled over 400 kilometres before reaching the jungles of Faizabad.