MANANTHAVADY: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, reached Wayanad on Wednesday on a two-day visit. The minister’s visit comes after three people were killed in wild animal attacks in two weeks. The district witnessed massive agitation and violence over human-wildlife conflicts in the past few days.
After a meeting with the BJP leaders in Sultan Bathery, he visited the houses of those killed in recent wild animal attacks, on Wednesday evening. He first visited the house of Prajeesh, who was killed in a tiger attack on December 9, at Moodakolli in Poothadi.
Later he went to the houses of Paul V P in Pakkam, Pulpally, and Ajeesh Joseph at Chaligadha in Mananthavady. He will attend a meeting of top officials of various departments, including forest, at the collectorate at 10 am on Thursday.
Tiger attacks cows in broad daylight
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a tiger attacked two cows of a local resident Saseendran at Kurichipatta near Pulpally, while people were watching in the daytime. The tiger attacked the cows that were left to graze in the field around 2.30pm.
A cow died in the attack. Another cow has a serious neck injury. People were grazing cows in the area when the incident occurred. The tiger came from the forest and chased the cows in the field.
When Saseendran and others raised an alarm, the tiger left the cows and ran back to the forest. After examining the footprints, the forest department officials confirmed that the cow was killed by a tiger. A team of forest officials was deployed for patrolling the area. The tiger attack took place just one kilometre away from the house of Paul V P, who was killed in a wild elephant attack last Friday.
