The officials are not certain about its identity and are worried lest they shoot another tiger by mistake. To avoid killing the wrong tiger, the y are now waiting for it to enter villages in search of humans so they can identify it. Incidentally, the maneater killed on Tuesday was wrongly claimed to be a male by the forest officials.

“It is not possible to identify and kill the maneater in forests. There will be many big cats there. Only when it enters the human habitat, its status of maneater will be confirmed. Our team present in the area will immediately alert the forest department officials, who will then rush to the spot,” said Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), BK Patnaik.

Villagers have also been asked to remain alert overnight and inform officials if they spot the predator. Forest officials have been deputed in five hamlets of the area with 10 villagers. “We have formed village defence team and villagers will keep vigil overnight,” said Patnaik.

The forest department has authorised forest researcher AN Singh and Deputy Divisional Forest Officer (Dudhwa) PP Sigh to shoot the tiger. The tiger was declared a maneater on February 19 after it had killed five villagers and injured another.