Tigress captured in Wayanad

The predator that had villagers on the edge for a month walked into a Forest department trap on Wednesday morning

A tigress that triggered panic among local residents at the Kakkadamkunnu and Vakery areas near Sulthan Bathery under the South Wayanad Forest Division, was captured by the Forest department from a coffee estate on Wednesday.

The tigress, aged about 14 years, had triggered panic among the villagers for the past one month after the workers of the Edan Valley estate at Kakkadamkunnu sighted the animal in different parts of the estate. Moreover, it had allegedly killed a dog from the coffee estate recently.

A team, led by forest officer K.P. Abdulsamad, had set up a trap inside the estate on Monday. The animal walked into the trap around 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

The predator was shifted to the animal hospice and palliative care unit for big cats in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) at Sulthan Bathery on the directive of South Wayanad divisional forest officer Shajna Kareem.

The big cat was examined by a team of veterinary experts, and was found to be not fit to release in the wild as it had lost its canine teeth, department sources said. It was under observation to identify any infection to its internal organs, they added.

The animal was identified as WW 54, a resident of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, home to more than half the number of tigers present in the State, Ms. Kareem told The Hindu.