The tiger that is believed to have killed two people in Kodagu district in the past 24 hours, was captured by forest authorities on Sunday afternoon with the help of trained elephants. The tiger was put in a cage after trained shooters of the forest department sedated it with darts.
“It is a tigress of around nine years old. She has an injury on her right paw. She was sedated and regained consciousness. Preliminary observation suggests the tigress is healthy,” Vijaykumar Gogi, senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife, told TNM.
“We have to assess the condition of the dentures and nature of her injury further to figure out why she had taken to killing humans. We will treat her paw first and then assess further if she can be released into the wild or not. Until then she will be kept at a rehabilitation facility within the Nagarhole forest,” he added.
He suggested that given the tiger’s age and health condition, it is unlikely she will be let out in the wild again.
On Sunday morning, a woman of around 60 was mauled to death by a tiger when she was at a field to answer nature’s call in the wee hours. The same tiger is suspected to have killed a 14-year-old boy on Saturday night when he went out to fetch some firewood.
Kodagu, located in Western Ghats, is a tourist hotbed and has been witnessing incidents of human-tiger conflict in recent months. Incidents of cattle falling prey to tigers have also come to light recently.
Conservationists suggest that recurrence of these events are increasing day by day due to degradation of habitat of wild animals, increased encroachment of forests and cutting off the migration path of wild animals due to road and rail projects.