The tiger that is suspected to have killed a farmer in Odeyarapura village abutting the Hediyala range of Bandipur National Park, is yet to be sighted or identified despite installation of 30 camera traps and combing of the area.
The Forest Department launched the combing operation around Odeyanapura on Monday but with no results and the exercise resumed at dawn on Tuesday. But it did not yield any result again due to incessant rains which also washed out any trace of pug marks.
Ramesh Kumar, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, said that the first step in the ongoing operation is to establish the identity of the tiger which was involved in the killing.
As there was no camera traps installed in the location before the attack took place, the authorities do not have a reference image to zero-in on a tiger. ‘’We cannot capture any tiger that is in the range and want to capture images of tigers moving in the area to ascertain if any one of them have traces of injuries as they are most likely to have attacked the farmer – Puttaswamy Gowda - besides killing the cow’’, he added.
As an injured tiger tends to establish itself along the forest fringes, cages have been placed in certain places in anticipation of the tiger’s movement on the periphery.
Meanwhile, two elephants – Rohit and Parthasarthy - have also been deployed for the combing operation which will resume at dawn on Wednesday.
