Farmers detained a team of forest personnel at Madur near Meenangadi under the South Wayanad Forest Division on Tuesday morning, seeking protection from recurring wild animal attacks.
A cow belonging to a dairy farmer in the Madur tribal hamlet was found dead on Monday night. Residents suspect that the cow was killed by a tiger. Another cow was reportedly killed by a tiger two days ago while a partially eaten carcass of a wild boar was found on a private coffee plantation on Sunday.
Forest personnel had driven away a tigress and two cubs into a nearby forest from a human habitat a few days ago.
When a team of forest officers, including Chethalayath Forest Range Officer K.P. Abdul Samad, visited the hamlet, the villagers detained them for half an hour, demanding protection from wildlife menace. They also demanded fair compensation for the farmer who lost his cow.
Later, the officials and Meenangadi grama panchayat president P.A. Vinayan held talks with the residents and assured them that steps would be taken to set up a cage in the area to capture the tiger.
“We were yet to get an image of the conflict tiger, though we had installed several surveillance cameras in the area,” South Wayanad Divisional Forest Officer Shajna Kareem told The Hindu.
Once the officials get an image of the predator, it will be identified by a committee, constituted as per the standard operative procedures of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. It would recommend setting up a cage to capture the straying tiger, said Ms. Kareem.
She added that as many as 10 camera traps had been set up in the area to watch the predator’s movements, besides deploying separate teams of frontline forest officials for round-the-clock patrolling.
