An injured tiger is escaping from a trap in Kerala’s Wayanad for 3 weeks (Representational)
Wayanad, Kerala:
An injured tiger on the hunt for the past three weeks is escaping a trap set by the forest department in parts of Kerala’s Wayanad district.
The district administration has deployed six battalions of police and forest officers. Local people of the Kurichi tribal community have also been included in the search team to trace the tiger.
Forest officials are also planning to build temporary monitoring houses on top of trees to locate the tiger and have deployed experts to use tranquilizer guns.
A senior police officer told news agency PTI, “Around 200 police, forest officials and others are trying to trace the tiger. We are planning to build a watch house on top of trees and have officers with tranquilizer guns in it.” Will be.”
Senior wildlife officials of Thiruvananthapuram are on their way to Wayanad district.
A senior wildlife official told news agency PTI that they are trying their best to capture the animal.
“The tiger is a procrastinator. We are trying our best. It is also injured. We are hopeful that we will catch it soon,” the official said.
Kumki elephants (trained captive elephants used to trap wild animals) are being used to destroy the scrub forest where the tiger can hide.
Meanwhile, news of a fight between local people and forest officials also came to light.
Local people allege that even after getting information about the presence of tigers in the surrounding area to the forest department, they did not take any action on Thursday night.
Local resident Johnson told PTI-language that the local administration has been warning people not to step out.
“There are examinations in some schools. Since this is the situation, the forest department has made arrangements to transport the students to the schools for examinations. Those who need to cut grass for their animals are unable to do so for several days. It’s affecting farm animals too,” Mr. Johnson said.
The district administration has extended prohibitory orders in divisions 11, 12, 13 and 14 and other adjoining divisions.
In the last 20 days, the tiger has so far killed 17 cows and goats. About 90 cameras have been installed by the Forest Department to capture the picture of the tiger, so far only one photo has been taken. Officials are finding it difficult to trace the tiger using drones as coffee plants are growing among tall trees, making it difficult to identify the animal.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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