Efforts to capture straying tiger at Meenangadi fruitless

Pug marks indicate that the animal has moved to nearby Beenachi estate

The intensive combing operation by the Forest department to capture the elusive tiger at Meenangadi grama panchayat, under the South Wayanad Forest Division, on Monday proved futile.

The wild cat had triggered panic among villagers after it reportedly killed nine heads of goat on Saturday. Many residents had sighted the animal in human habitats too. The residents said the predator killed 20 domestic animals in various parts of the local body in a month.

The department had mobilised 200 forest personnel from three forest divisions, including the Rapid Response Team, for the search. They started the search around 10 a.m. at Choorimala, where the big cat had reportedly killed three goats on Saturday morning.

The forest personnel were divided into ten groups comprising trackers, a darting team, and veterinarians. They tried to trace the animal till 3.30 p.m. “We got a sighting of the tiger near Churinmal Kolly near Kolagappara but the darting team could not shoot as the animal was moving very fast, South Wayanad Divisional Forest Officer Shajna Kareem told The Hindu. They also used an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to track the tiger, but it was also futile owing to the dense canopy of trees in the area.

The team members combed nearly 12 sq km area on the day. Later, the trackers could trace the pug marks of the animal, indicating that the animal had moved to nearby Beenachi estate, a coffee plantation owned by the Madhya Pradesh government near Sulthan Bathery, in the evening, Ms. Kareem said.

The officials have set up 10 more surveillance cameras, and a cage near the estate to capture it, apart from four cages and 25 surveillance cameras in different parts of the local body, she said.

As many as five mobile squads, each consisting of six to eight Forest officials, have been constituted for night patrol in the area, Ms. Kareem said.