Injured tiger that killed 8 domestic animals captured in Wayanad

Senior veterinary surgeon Arun Zacharia said the four-year-old male tiger suffered serious injuries supposedly from the fight for territory or mating rights.

A male tiger that triggered panic in many areas of Mananthawadi in Wayanad for more than two weeks was captured by the forest officials on Thursday.

The tiger was spotted by locals in the Kalliyottu area near a human habitat and they alerted forest officials, who darted the big cat after a chase, an officer said. The tiger killed eightdomestic animals in the area. (AFP)

The tiger was spotted by locals in the Kalliyottu area near a human habitat and they alerted forest officials, who darted the big cat after a chase, an officer said. The tiger killed eightdomestic animals in the area.

Senior veterinary surgeon Arun Zacharia said the four-year-old male tiger suffered serious injuries supposedly from the fight for territory or mating rights. He said some of the injuries were three-week-old, and this might have forced the tiger to human habitat for easy prey.

“It has deep cuts in its paws making difficult for it to hunt in the wild,” he said.

The tiger was shifted to an animal palliative care centre in Sultan Bathery, where it is currently undergoing treatment, forest officials said.

Initial attempts to trap the animal failed to yield any results. Later, chief wildlife wardenordered the officials to tranquillize it.

The locals, agitated about the menace caused by the tiger had initially blocked officials from entering the area in protest for not taking action.

Drawing comparison from past experiences, the locals have said they will oppose any move to release the tiger in the wild again after its recovery.

Three weeks ago, forest officials had rescued a tiger cub, which fell into an unused well in the district, and later sent back to forests along with its mother. However, locals allege that the mother tiger came to the area several times looking for its cub even after this.

“Our movements were restricted in last weeks. We were scared of sending our children to schools. But as usual forest officials took it lightly,” said a native M Karuppan.

Last December, in Kurukanmoola, another hamlet in the district, a male tiger had strayed into human habitat and killed many domestic animals, but after two weeks it went off the radar after forest officials put up cages and deployed darting experts.

On Thursday, forest officials said the captured tiger is not the one that triggered fear two months back.

Kerala has a robust forest cover, 29% of the total area, and enjoys a healthy wildlife population, with a total of 190 tigers and 5,706 elephants, according to state forest department data.

However, forest encroachment is also rampant in many parts of the state. Nature lovers often decry delay in implementing expert committee reports from Madhav Gadgil and K Kasturirangan intended to save Western Ghat mountain ranges.

Following mounting concern that ecology of the Western Ghats, a UNESCO heritage site, was under serious threat due to human interference, the Union government had set up an expert panel under eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil. In 2011, he submitted his report and all six states (Gujarat, Maharastra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) coming under the shadow of the Ghats, opposed the panel recommendations.

Next year, a working group was constituted under Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, former Isro chief. A mellowed one, the latter made some changes in the zonal classification and reduced the fragile area to 37% from the 63% recommended by Gadgil. But report was also rejected by people living in the periphery of Ghats.