The Forest Department is grappling with two tigers and trying to trap and tranquilise them to reduce conflict situation around Bandipur in Chamarajanagar district and in Virajpet territorial division of Kodagu district.
The operation to trap the elusive tiger in Bandipur will commence on Monday, while the department is on the tiger’s trail in Virajpet since almost a fortnight without much success.
The Bandipur-Nagarahole-Wayanad-Mudumalai belt has one of the highest tiger densities in the world as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) reports, and experts opine that increase in tiger numbers could be forcing some of them to carve out new territories and hence are forced to stray into human landscape. But conflict situation has also been abetted by shrinking forest cover, increasing anthropogenic pressure resulting in habitat fragmentation and disturbance, roadworks through protected etc. leading to conflict situation.
T. Balachandra, Director, Bandipur National Park, said the operation to capture the elusive tiger would commence on Monday and they had secured permission for it. Based on pug marks and camera trap images the authorities had identified the tiger which was operating in a 1,000-hectare area outside the Kundakere range of Bandipur. “In the last one month it has killed 20 head of cattle and hence the local community is terrified. We are waiting for elephant Abhimanyu, Krishna and others from Nagarahole elephant camps to commence the operations,” Mr. Balachandra said.
He said they were confident of the tiger’s identity as it had been photographed 10 times in the last few days by the camera trap in the vicinity. The tiger is believed to be around four to five years old and authorities said it was trying to establish a territory for itself. But in the process it had ventured too close to human settlements and was now operating outside the park boundaries and hence it was imperative to capture and translocate it, Mr. Balachandra said.
The other tiger in Kodagu has struck repeatedly in Balele, Birunani, Kottageri, Nittoor and other villages in the Virajpet territorial division and is suspected to have killed more than a dozen head of cattle in the region.
