In a major operation, the Karnataka forest department officials have captured a male tiger outside the boundaries of Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BRT) in the Niligiri bio sphere. According to T Balachandra, Conservator of Forests and Field Director, Project Tiger Bandipur a cattle eating injured male tiger has been captured outside Bandipur Tiger Reserve on Tuesday.
The four year old Tiger supposedly killed many cattle in the villages of the vicinity of the forest. “The tiger killed and ate 20 domestic cattle. It made its territory outside the forest near a human habitation,” said Balachandra.
According to officials , the injury has enfeebled the tiger, rendering it hapless to hunt actively and forcing it to depend on domestic cattle for survival. After the capture, the forest department has shifted the big cat to Mysuru for treatment.
However wildlife activists say this is basically due to fragmentation of forests for linear structures and expansion of human settlements. Forest officials however want government to setup a ‘permanent panel’ which could deal with these conflict incidents and tackle any problem arising in such situations.
The tiger, a sub adult was captured with the help of trained elephants after it was sighted near the village early morning. Sighting and following its pug marks, the tiger was darted but it was successful only in the fourth attempt.
Bandipur Tiger Reserve, an 874 sq km national park, was formed by integrating most of the forest areas of erstwhile Venugopala Wildlife Park established in 1941. The tiger reserve lists 28 species of mammals, including Royal Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, common leopard, bonnet macaque, and Indian pipistrelle and barking deer, among others.
This tiger reserve has one of the highest tiger populations in the country. Eom/blr