Forest and Wildlife Department personnel set up a cage with a bait at Basavankolly near Pulpally in Wayanad district on Friday evening to capture the big cat which has triggered panic among villagers in the area.
The cage was set up nearly 500 metres from the Basavankolly tribal settlement on the fringes of the Kathavakkunnu forest in the South Wayanad Forest Division, where a 24-year-old youth of the tribal hamlet was killed and partially devoured by a carnivore on Tuesday.
Though a team of forest officials had searched the area for the animal, they were yet to sight it.
However, the image of the big cat was captured in a camera trap fixed in the area and the frontline forest staff also heard the growling of the animal near the site on Thursday night during their round-the-clock patrolling. Fresh pug marks were also sighted in the area, Forest department sources said.
Eighteen camera traps have been set up in and around the spot and round-the-clock patrolling has also been intensified in the area.
