MADIKERI: Virajpet division forest officers are at their wits end as villagers in the area are hounding them to catch a tiger they say has been tormenting them. But the officials have not been able to do so.
Let alone catch the tiger, they aren’t even sure if there is more than one of the wildcats marauding and taking away cattle from villages in the area. “Being summer, pugmarks that give us a lot of information, are not easy to find,” an officer offered as an explanation.
Whatever the number, the menace, according to reports, has increased over the last six months.
From setting up traps in Emmegundi near Siddapura, which they did a month back, to installing closed-circuit television cameras at vantage positions, nothing has worked, and the villagers have continued to lose their cattle.
“It is very difficult on us, for we depend on our cattle for our very livelihood. No amount of complaining has been bringing in any change. First it was the problem of elephants destroying our crops, now tigers roam about freely in our villages and kill our cattle,” a native told The New Indian Express on Friday.
Officials are unable to tackle the growing issue. “When we set a trap for the wild animal in Emmegundi, it did not provide the desired result. In fact, 30 Km away from where we were expecting to catch the tiger, it killed two domesticated animals in Dhanugala,” Tithimathi ACF Shripathi said.
Admitting that they were not even sure of the number of tigers they were up against, he said the department was doing all it possibly could to rid the villagers of the menace. “We have placed traps in Maldare, and, in fact, brought one from Nagarahole and placed it in Nallur,” he said.
He explained that a tiger needed at least 25 Sq Km of forest, but in Nagarhole, “the density of tigers was much higher, so they straying into habitats of man”. He said there were over 100 tigers in Nagarhole. “Some of these get into villages because of a shortage of food in the forest.
Another problem that makes things difficult for them, he added, is that whenever a tiger kills an animal, villagers throng the place in large numbers, “so the wildcat stays away and is forced to kill again elsewhere”.
Tiger kills another cow
Madikeri: A tiger killed a jersey breed cow in T Shettigeri village under T Shettigeri GP limits on Saturday morning. The cow belongs to one Chettangada Shashi. On Saturday morning the tiger entered cow shed and killed the cow. Sri Mangala RFO N Veerendra visited the spot and promised of suitable compensation. But villagers demanded compensation of `30,000 as the department
gave in Kumatur.