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Updated: Feb 01, 2019 19:36 IST

A day after it had mauled a 60-year-old man to death near the Nagarhole national park spanning Karnataka’s Kodagu and Mysuru districts, state forest department officials captured the tiger that is suspected to have attacked him.



The animal had also fatally attacked another man in the same region a day earlier.

“The animal seems to be about five to six years old and is injured in its right hind leg. This is probably the reason why it was preying on humans,” KM Narayanaswamy, Conservator of Forests told Hindustan Times.

“We had spotted the animal in one of our camera traps and successfully tranquilised it. Even though there was commotion in the region, we managed to move the tiger and it is on its way to Mysuru zoo,” he added.

On December 23, the tiger had claimed its first victim, Madhu, 28, a tribal youth from the village of Manimoole Haadi, that is adjacent to the Nagarhole national park. Following that, D Chinnappa, of Hullumtlu village, in the same region was mauled to death by the animal. On January 31, Thursday, the animal claimed the life of 60-year-old Mara, belonging to Thimanna Hosahalli village, again near the Nagarhole national park.

“We decided to act immediately and got our team together along with the elephants. After narrowing down on the tiger’s location, we tranquilised it and have begun relocating the animal,” C Jayaram, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Karnataka, who led the operation, said.

J Manjunatha, Secretary of the Wilderness Club, a Bengaluru-based wildlife conservation organisation, who was following the operation said, “It is commendable how swiftly the forest department acted under such immense pressure. They have not only caught the tiger within two days but have also managed to tranquilise it.”

The 643 sq.km Nagarhole national park is part of the Nilgiris biosphere reserve and is considered to be house to more than 80 tigers. The park is also one of the last few with indigenous people residing inside or extremely close to the core area of the national park.

HC Kantharaju, retired forest official familiar with Nagarhole says, “There are still about 1,600 people living inside or close to the national park. We have been asking them to relocate but only a few hundred have come out so far.”

“This creates a real issue because the tiger population is also thriving here and each animal now has an effective range of only about nine sq.km, while ideally, they need a range of at least 20 sq.km. This creates a lot of territorial conflicts and also results in affecting the human population. Unless the people here are all relocated, unfortunately, such adverse incidents might reoccur,” he added.