An operation is on in Hediyala range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka by the Forest Department to capture elusive tiger proscribed as a man-eater that has killed three persons in last 30 days. According to forest officials, the camera trap has yielded a fresh image of the tiger and also some fresh pug marks.
A forest official told the media that the pug marks were seen close to the place where the farmer Shivanna was killed on Tuesday and it matched a set of pug marks found near a waterhole, all in a radius of 1.5 km from the kill. The new set of pug marks also matched those found near the place where Shivanna was killed and hence it is clear that the tiger has not ventured too deep into the jungles.
According to Naveen Kumar, Wildlife Warden, Chamarajanagar said the camera trap image captured near the a waterhole of a tiger shows the tiger must be lurking around and confident of capturing the bug cat. He said “The image of the tiger was captured within 7 minutes of the camera trap being set up in the field. It means the tiger was prowling around and had perhaps watched the activity from close quarters but did not attack.”
The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Ravi Ralf is camping in Bandipur, monitoring the operations, and he has asked for additional camera traps to be set up in the area. “About 15 camera traps have been set up within a radius of 1.5 km of the spot where the farmer was killed and an additional 10 may be set up.”
Even though the intermittent drizzle hampering the operations they have pressed many elephants into service to trace the elusive tiger. After having killed three persons within a span of just 30 days, a wild tiger has visibly unleashed a reign of terror in the Heggadevanakote taluk of Mysuru district in Karnataka with the last incident of killing reported just two days back when a 54-year-old man was mauled to death.
Although a tiger was sighted frequently in the region bordering Bandipur National Park, this was the first fatal attack in the village, said a local who added that other two incidents of tiger killing in the district were also being attributed to the same tiger.
With regards to the latest killing by a tiger, a senior forest official said that the victim gone into the forest to collect firewood when it was attacked and mauled by the tiger. The injured man later succumbed to his injuries, added the official. eom/blr