SULTAN BATHERY: The government has sought the cooperation of Tamil Nadu forest authorities to track and capture the tiger that has been roaming around the human habitats at Cheeral in Sultan Bathery. The decision was taken on Saturday at a meeting between Wayanad wildlife warden K Abdul Azeez and Gudalur DFO.
Though the forest department has installed camera traps in Thottamoola - Pazhur forest areas and Cheeral, all efforts to capture the tiger failed. There was no information about the tiger after October 15. But, the predator reappeared in the village on Friday night and killed a cow.
Following this, the forest officials tracked the tiger’s movements and found that it crossed over to the Tamil Nadu forest area during the past week. After confirming the information, Wildlife Warden Abdul Azeez went to Gudalur and held talks with the Tamil Nadu forest officers, who agreed to cooperate in tracking the tiger. The plan is to mobilise forces and carry out an extensive search in the forest on Tamil Nadu - Kerala border.
“We will be holding another round of discussion with the Tamil Nadu forest officials in Sultan Bathery soon. The meeting will chalk out the strategy for the search operation” said Abdul Azeez. Meanwhile, the rapid response teams and the forest officials conducted a combined operation to track the tiger in Cheeral on Sunday. For the first time, the forest department involved residents too in the search teams. Around 60 forest staff and seven residents participated. However, the tiger could not be spotted.
It is suspected the big cat might have come near the two cages kept by the forest department in Cheeral on Saturday night. The department has kept three cages in the area. The trap doors of two of them were found closed on Sunday morning. “We suspect the tiger had been captured using a cage in the past. It hits the cage from outside to check whether it is a trap,” said a villager. The tiger, which entered the village on September 25, has been roaming around the hamlet and killing cattle for nearly a month.
Leaders of the Dairy Farmers’ Congress visited the farmers who lost their cattle and offered support to their agitation on Sunday. “The compensation given to the farmers is inadequate. The milch cows give around 30 litres of milk a day and it is the livelihood of the farmers,” said secretary Shanty Chenapady.
A grama sabha meeting will be held at Cheeral AUP school at 2pm on Monday where Nenmeni panchayat members and action committee leaders will participate. The meeting will kick-start a mass signature campaign demanding the capture of the big cat. The mass petition will be submitted to the chief minister.