Pilibhit, Mar 10 (IANS): Destiny helped a two-year-old tigress lurking in a sugarcane field of Sahpura village under the Bisalpur tehsil circle, to survive attempts being made to tranquilize and capture her.

A team of forest officials and field forest staff of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) and wildlife division headed by the field director of PTR, Lalit Verma, were engaged in the operation which has to be finally aborted after three attempts to tranquilize the big cat prove futile.

"The sugarcane field was encircled in three directions with nets while two cages with live baits were installed at its open side. Three teams of forest staff members were deployed to restrain the feline from barging into human habitation. As many as 8 camera traps were also set up to monitor the movement of the tigress," Verma said.

He added that the team would wait for the tigress to get trapped in the cage before launching a second operation to tranquilise her.

Meanwhile, locals at the Muria Ratanpuri village had complained about an adult leopard that has continued to stray in the fields since the past four days.