Villages around the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) have plunged into tiger scare after a gap of two years after the body of a farmer, eaten partially probably by a man-eating cat, was found in the forest near Noolpuzha in the Sulthan Bathery region of the Wayanad district the other day. The Kerala Forest Department has put the villages on the forest fringes of the sanctuary on alert following the suspicion that a man-eating tiger could be on the prowl. Anxiety gripped the villages after the partially eaten body of Bhaskaran (62) of Puthoorkolly was found on Tuesday in the Mukkuthikkunnu forest in the Sulthan Bathery region.
This was the first time a human death due to tiger attack was being reported in the State in recent times. A forest watcher had been killed last year in a tiger attack in the Nagarhola forests in Karnataka, adjacent to the Wayanad sanctuary. Forest authorities in Wayanad asked the people in the villages not to venture into the forest.
The partially devoured body of farmer Bhaskaran, who had gone missing on Monday, was found from two spots in the forest. Deep bite marks were found on the body as per the post-mortem report. According to witnesses, pug-marks found nearby suggested that the farmer could have been mauled to death by an ageing big cat.
The incident triggered public rage instantly with hundreds of people gathering on the spot, asking the Forest officials to take immediate measures to cage the tiger. Forest officials said that trap-cages had been set up to catch the animals. They said that they had fixed camera traps to identify the animal, adding that the tiger, if caught, would not be released into the wild.
Villages in the Sulthan Bathery region around the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary had witnessed tiger-triggered panic in November-December, 2012 following the frequent intrusion by a big cat into the villages. The tiger, which had reportedly killed 23 cows but had not eaten any of them, was eventually shot dead by Forest officials as per the instructions of the State Government. According to the villagers, the tiger that was shot dead could have been the same one which the Forest officials had caught in a cage and released at a place in the jungle which was allegedly close to the villages.