Obsession for kill? Officials may use perfume to lure Maharashtra tigress T1

NAGPUR: Maharashtra forest officials are mulling to use ‘Calvin Klein’ perfume to lure the elusive problem tigress T1, even as a fresh combing operation to track her was launched in Loni forest on Monday.


Thirteen people have been killed, not all by T1 of Pandharkawda (Yavatmal district), between June 2016 and August this year.


The perfume experiment has been successfully conducted in the US as well as in India. The brand of perfume, which is popular among men, costs between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,500 per 120ml bottle. It was a US researcher who found that the Calvin Klein perfume was effective in luring nocturnal animals.





The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Pantheria released some camera trap footage from Uganda’s Kibale National Park showing a rarely seen African golden cat. The cat was recorded scent-marking after it was baited to the camera site with Calvin Klein’s ‘Obsession’ brand of perfume for men. Two years ago, wildlife vet and forensic expert Dr HS Prayag from Karnataka had conducted the Calvin Klein test in Mandya in Karnataka to lure a leopard and later to localise a man-eater tiger in Guduluru in Tamil Nadu. “We used it as a last resort and were successful,” he said.

Telangana officials too are contemplating to use this perfume in Mancherial district where a tigress, K4, is moving around with a wire snare attached to its body.

Like T1, K4 too is elusive. Dr Prayag was part of the K4 rescue operation but has been shunted out on administrative grounds.