KOZHIKODE: Ending 10 days of intense search, the man-eater tiger that spread fear in Vakery and nearby areas of Wayanad was finally caged by the forest department on Monday.
The 13-year-old male tiger was trapped in a cage set up on a coffee plantation near the colony at Koodallur, where the partly-eaten body of a dairy farmer was found last week, said forest officials.
Prajeesh, 36, was killed by the tiger — identified as WWL 45 of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary — on December 9.
Forest Minister A K Saseendran, in a statement, said the additional chief secretary of forests and the chief wildlife warden have been called to discuss the next course of action about the captured animal.
After a preliminary examination, the tiger was shifted to the animal hospice centre at Pachadi in Sultan Bathery on Monday evening. According to sources, the animal will be shifted to the Thrissur zoo once its wounds heal.
Earlier in the day, the residents of Koodallur staged a protest demanding the man-eater be shot. They said the officials will not be allowed to take the caged tiger from the spot unless it is killed. Protesting against the forest department’s move to take away the tiger, the residents blocked its vehicle for an hour. Later, the officials managed to shift the animal to Sultan Bathery.
Special team to examine tiger:
After the tiger was declared a man-eater, the chief wildlife warden had issued an order to tranquilise and capture the animal or to kill it in case the animal could not be captured. The forest department has deployed a team headed by veterinary surgeon Dr Arun Zachariah to examine the animal.
The shifting operations were coordinated by Wayanad Wildlife Warden Dinesh Kumar and South Wayanad DFO Shajna Karim. To avoid any untoward incident, the forest minister has directed the officials concerned to deploy more personnel on duty at the animal hospice centre in Sultan Bathery.
Following this, a large contingent of police, headed by Sultan Bathery DySP Abdul Shareef, arrived at the spot along with the forest department’s Rapid Response Team (RRT). Based on the instruction from the district police chief, more personnel from the Armed Reserve Camp in Kalpetta have been deployed at the spot. Immediately after confirming that Prajeesh was killed in a tiger attack, the department had started setting up cages and camera traps in the area to capture the animal.
A 100-member team under the leadership of North Zone Chief Conservator of Forests K S Deepa and DFO Shajna had been on the lookout for the man-eater. On Saturday, the tiger attacked and killed a cow at Kalloorkunnu in Vakeri. Pug marks found in the area confirmed that it was the same tiger that killed Prajeesh.