By Siraj Khan, Nepalgunj, Oct. 3: "As four Royal Bengal tigers surrounded us, we immediately climbed up a tree nearby seeking refuge. We called for help from the tree for one and a half hours but got no response. While we had lost our hopes to live, a rescue team from the national park rescued us with the help of an elephant." Setu Oli experienced this near-to-death situation on Saturday in Gavar of Banke district.

"We had gone into the forest to look after the grazing cattle," said Kalika Khadka, who also experienced this dire situation. "While we were talking, the goats and buffaloes suddenly started to run as four tigers were approaching near us."

Khadka said that they climbed the tree in no time and cried for assistance. The four man-eater tigers were patrolling around the tree.

"Thankfully, the National Park officials were able to chase the tigers away with the help of a Mahout and elephant," said Khadka.

All three of the herders including Oli, Khadka, and Hira Khadka of Gavar in Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality-1, said that they were utterly hopeless until the rescue team showed up.

Stating that all three of them received a new life, Oli said had the team from the national park not heard us, the tigers would have attacked us. "We are still shivering. It is hard to believe that we survived this close encounter with the deadly tigers," said Oli.

The three herders had encountered the tigers on the road leading to Kharchetal in the forest around one kilometer south from the highway between Gavar and Sikta.

Kalika said that after the tigers could not climb the tree, they had chased the cattle.

Meanwhile, chief conservation officer of Banke National Park Shyam Kumar Shah said that the army from the national park had successfully rescued the herders from tigers with the help of an elephant.

"As the elephant was nearby, we were able to rescue them immediately. The situation would have been fatal otherwise," said Shah.

On September 11 evening, a tiger had snatched an Indian national working at a Gavar-based hotel from the highway itself. The national park had deployed two elephants, a team of Nepali Army, and a technical team to take the tigers in a trap.

While a calf was tied in the middle of the forest to lure the tigers, the team could not take the tigers into control as they ate the calf only after six days.

The camera installed to watch the movements of the tigers had also captured all four tigers in a single frame.