NILGIRIS: The forest department has issued an order to capture a male tiger which is suspected to have killed 13 cows in the surroundings of Devarsholai near Gudalur in the last six months.
A technical guidance committee has been constituted to execute the order issued on Wednesday night by Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy. The panel will be carrying out their first field visit at Devarsholai on Friday morning.
The committee headed by the field director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) comprises one nominee each proposed by the Chief Wildlife Warden and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), an NGO representative, along with the Divisional Forest Officer (Gudalur) and a forest veterinary assistant surgeon.
On Friday evening, the committee will decide on fixing a cage and more camera traps after analysing the home range of the animal. Drone surveillance is already underway.
N Venkatesh Prabhu, the DFO of Gudalur Forest Division, himself met the Chief Wildlife Warden in Chennai and conveyed people's anger and demand for the capture and relocation of the big cat following the death of cows, said sources.
A senior forest official said, "From the 20 camera traps we have fixed we came to know that the animal is preying only on cows left alone by their owners for grazing in the fields that are far away from human habitations. The tiger is aged between two-and-a half and three years. It is within seven square kilometers of Devarsholai. The place is 4 km from the MTR. So far there has been no negative human-tiger interactions."
"People should not panic as we have made all arrangements for capturing the big cat. Experienced trackers are engaged in tracking it. Two kumki elephants will be brought to assist the capture and subsequently it will be relocated," the official explained.
"We suspect that the mother of this male tiger may have left him six months ago and gone inside the MTR forests for its breeding again. Before that, she was hunting and shared its wild prey with the male tiger. We also suspect that the mother tiger could have come to Devarsholai for the delivery of this male tiger, fearing other tigers in MTR.
Since the mother moved inside the forest, the tiger started preying on cows as they were easy catch , replacing wild prey. It is normal for a mother to leave its cub when the latter develops hunting skills by the age of two-and-a-half or three years," the official explained.
Sources also claimed that there were plenty of bushes in the unmaintained estates in the surroundings of Devarsholai. A part of the area comes under Janmam lands (Section 17 lands) and it has a sizable population of Sambar deer, spotted deer, barking deer and gaur.