Following a slew of attacks on people as well as animals in Karnataka’s Kodagu, another calf was killed suspectedly in a tiger attack on Monday. The calf’s death comes after officials captured a tiger, which is suspected to be responsible for the death of two persons, a 16-year-old boy and 60-year-old woman, in Kodagu’s Ponnampet taluk. Due to the close proximity of time and distance between the incidents, forest officials believed that the same tiger was responsible for both the deaths.
The death of the calf on Monday morning comes after the tiger suspected of killing the two people was captured by the Forest Department. As reported earlier, forest officials captured the animal with the help of trained elephants. Though its capture came as a relief for local residents, their sense of fear is back after the calf’s death on Monday.
Read: Tiger suspected to have killed two people in Kodagu captured
“We are not sure if Monday’s calf killing was done by a tiger as of now. It may have been a leopard, too, behind this calf killing. We are combing the area to spot pug marks and ascertain the details. The area is around 2 km from where the tiger was captured yesterday,” Hiralal, Chief Conservator of Forests and a senior Indian Forest Service officer, told TNM.
Meanwhile, reports of the heads of cattle being found, suspectedly killed by big cats in Virajpet taluk, have also surfaced. This has prompted district and forest authorities to comb the area for the animals.
Vijaykumar Gogi, senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife, had told TNM that the animal in question is a tigress of around nine years, who has an injury on her right paw. It is now being treated by the forest department and is unlikely to be released back into the wild, as it is old and injured.
Read: Tiger kills woman in Kodagu, second such death within 24 hours
Kodagu, located in Western Ghats, is a tourist hotspot and has been the site of increased human-tiger conflict in recent months. Conservationists suggest that recurrence of these events are due to loss of habitat, increased encroachment of forests and cutting off of migration paths of wild animals due to road and rail projects.