NILGIRIS: Two kumki elephants have been deployed to assist the forest department personnel in tracking and capturing the tiger that allegedly killed two men at Lauriston near O-Valley, on Friday evening.
The deployment of kumki elephants Bomman and Udayan is expected to be an added advantage for the forest department, as veterinarians can get a better view of the tiger and attempt to dart it while sitting along with the mahouts on the elephants. The trained kumki elephants from Theppakkadu Elephant Camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) are being used to navigate the rugged and treacherous terrain.
Meanwhile, forest department officials and staff met residents of Lauriston No. 4, the tribal settlement and nearby Theivamalai, and assured them that their children would be taken to school in forest department vehicles from Monday.
Meanwhile, it has been eight days since the tiger killed the first victim, and it has not yet been captured despite the deployment of 13 cages with live bait. Its movements are being monitored using 130 camera traps.
Forest department officials in Gudalur suspect that the tiger may have moved into nearby forest ranges. "We have instructed the Naduvattam Forest Range in the Nilgiris Forest Division and the Singara Forest Range in the Masinagudi Forest Division of MTR to install camera traps, monitor the area and update us on the tiger's movement," said a senior forest official of the Gudalur Forest Division.
The forest field-level team has intensified searches at Smoke House, Sandhills, Balmadies and Silver Cloud Estate, where there are high chances of tiger movement.
The first incident occurred on August 9 when the tiger killed M Balakrishnan (58). In the second incident on August 21, K Ravikumar (51) was killed allegedly by a tiger.
Nilgiris District Collector Lakshmi Bhavya Taneeru along with DFO P Devaraj jointly monitored the work being carried out to capture the tiger. The collector also met the kin of Ravikumar and condoled the death.