MYSURU: A day after a 10-year-old tigress attacked two villagers and killed a cow at Gopalapura village in Gundlupet taluk of Chamarajanagar district, the forest staff of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR) succeeded in capturing the big cat which was hiding in a banana plantation, on Sunday morning.
Despite heavy rain in the region, the foresters launched an operation to capture the tigress, which had strayed into the Gopalapura village from the nearby Gopalaswamy Betta Forest Range, at around 6 am by roping in tuskers Abhimanyu and Srikanta from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.
BTR veterinarian Mirza Wasim and Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve veterinarian Muzeeb Rehman succeeded in dotting the tigress. Later, she was captured and loaded on to a vehicle. BTR director P Ramesh Kumar told The New Indian Express the operation to nab the tiger was launched at 6 am and by around 8.45 am the tigress it was tranquilised.
Camera traps used
"When veterinarians conducted a health checkup on the animal, they found it had serious injuries in its legs, shoulders, stomach and near the tail. Its front right leg was also injured. Probe revealed that front two canines were worn out due to age and it was in a very weak condition. She was shifted to Sri Chamundi Animal Conservation, Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre at Koorgalli for treatment," BTR director P Ramesh Kumar said.
The tigress was monitored through camera traps in Hediyala forest range from 2014 to 2021. The foresters sent the pictures of the tigress to Tiger Cell in Bengaluru where a database of tigers is maintained. The details helped in identifying the tigress," Kumar said.
It may be recalled that the tigress was first spotted by villagers on Saturday at a farm land belonging to one Chennappa at Lakkipura village coming under Gopalapura Forest Beat of G S Betta Forest Range at around 12 am. Gaviappa (60), who saw the tiger hunting a cow, tried to chase the big cat away, but he too was attacked by her. Gaviappa suffered injuries in one of his eyes and other parts of the body.
As a huge crowd gathered and villagers started to take pictures and videos by going too close to the animal, the panicked tigress charged at the crowd injuring Rajashekar (35) badly. He too was rushed to the hospital in Mysuru. Soon after the villagers informed the forest department about the incident, forest officials and police rushed to the spot.