SULTAN BATHERY: An eerie silence blankets Noolpuzha and Nenmeni panchayats in Wayanad. Women stay indoors, children are barred from playing in the courtyard. Men go to work in groups. Workers in the farmlands stick together and carry long sticks or machetes. By dusk, all activities stop.
The two panchayats, located on either side of the highway connecting Sultan Bathery with Gudalur in Tamil Nadu and Mysuru in Karnataka, have been held hostage, by a tiger. The big cat, an adult male aged around 10 years, has been terrorising the two villages for the past 23 days. So far, it has attacked nine milch cows, seven of which have died, while two belonging to Ayyanchola Velayudhan and his wife Ratnavalli are seriously injured. The tiger could not eat them as the families drove it away by shouting and bursting crackers.
This has created another problem. The fact that the tiger has not eaten anything since October 9 increases the chances of it turning into a maneater. With tears in their eyes as they nursed the two cows, the couple recalled the terrifying incident that took place around 5.30am on October 7.
Woken up by panicked mooing, Velayudhan had rushed outside their house at Kandarmala followed by son Varun. That’s when they saw it: The tiger tearing the flesh off one of his cows. The duo shouted and rushed to the cowshed. The tiger ran away.
Six days later, they were woken up by a loud thud and saw the tiger chasing a deer on the road. Velayudhan was returning to bed when he heard the cows moo and went outside. The tiger had grabbed the forelimb of another cow. It ran away again.
The two attacks cost the family its livelihood. “We had bought the cows, which used to give 42 litres of milk, after taking loans from Kudumbashree. This is our only livelihood. We have not sold milk for 10 days. Our resources have dried up,” said Velayudhan.
‘How long should we stay at home? How will we send our children to schools’
K M Daniel, an ex-serviceman, stopped rearing cows after he lost three of them to tiger attacks within a year. “The first cow, aged 11 months, was killed on June 17, 2021. Then, the tiger killed a calf around 4.30am on October 2. On October 5, it killed another milch cow, a five-year old that used to give 20 litres of milk and was worth Rs 1.25 lakh,” said Daniel.
The cow owned by Jaison of Periyapurath house in Karuvally was attacked around 4am on Friday. “It came from behind the shed and caught the cow by its neck. The panicked mooing woke us up. The tiger ran away when we switched on the lights and shouted. The cow stopped eating and stayed still, its gaze fixed at the spot from the tiger had emerged. It collapsed in the evening and died on Sunday. Its suffering shocked us all. We sold our second cow on Saturday,” said Jaison.
His wife Saritha said cattle rearing is the main source of livelihood for villagers. “Men have to take the milk to collection points at 5.30 am. A few Muslim children from the area go to the madrasa at 6am. Daily labourers who go out return by 8pm,” she said.
Meanwhile, many villagers have stopped cultivating farmlands as wild animals like deer, monkeys, wild boar and elephants enter the hamlets and destroy crops. It has been around 5 years since tigers started straying into the villages. The one terrorising the panchayats since September 25 is believed to have lost one if its canines.
So far, it has not attacked human and moves stealthily through various houses. The forest department has placed cages at three locations where the tiger was seen earlier this month. “We suspect the tiger might have fallen in a cage earlier. Three days ago, it went near a cage and hit it with its paw. The cage closed and the tiger escaped. As per the information provided by tribals, the tiger lives in Ambazhakolli grassland, which is close to the forest boundary.
There are a few huge coffee estates in the village where people rarely go as the owners are living in the town. It is possible the tiger is hiding in one of the estates,” said Binoy Pazhayidath of Cheeral, a farmer and member of the Kerala Independent Farmer’s Association (KIFA) which helps people affected by the tiger attacks. “One of our three cows was killed by the tiger on September 25. My husband Devadas had suffered a stroke and we depend on the cows for livelihood.
The tiger may return anytime for our other two cows. We have covered the cowshed with nets and stay awake at night. We have not slept peacefully for weeks,” Ratnavalli of Valiyaveettil house in Karuvally. The forest department has intensified its search and deployed rapid response team to capture the tiger after the villagers observed a day-long hartal recently.
People have been asked to stay indoors at night. Schools were closed on Saturday. “For how long should we stay at home? How will we send our children to schools,” asked K R Sajan, chairman of the People’s Protest Committee.