The tiger cub that had been captured by officials of the South Wayanad forest division on Wednesday morning was released to its mother at Mandakavayal near Mylampadi in the district.
The officials had set up the cage on a coffee plantation at Mandakavayal to capture a straying tiger that has triggered panic among the public in Mylampadi, Avayal, Mandkavayal, Cee and Vakery areas under the Meenangadi grama panchayat limits for the past many weeks.
The cub, around four months old, entered the cage in the wee hours of Wednesday.
When the forest officials reached the spot on Wednesday morning they found the mother tigress and sibling trying to rescue the trapped cub. They also tried to attack the officials.
Finally, the cub joined with its mother and sibling after the officials opened the cage around 2 p.m. with the help of two Kumki elephants, trained elephants, and an excavator.
It took nearly seven hours to complete the operation. A few weeks ago the officials had driven back a tigress and its cubs, which had triggered panic among villagers at Vakery in Wayanad, into the forest.
