COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Forest department staff have been unable to sight the big cat on the fourth consecutive day even as the operation entered the 16th day on Sunday. However, in the morning, the team noticed two other tigers while checking camera traps at Masinagudi in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Sources said images were not related to MDT 23.
Tiger movement was not recorded in cameras fixed near Moyar river where a cow was believed to have been killed by a tiger on October 8, sources said. They added the images of MDT 23 were not captured on any of the cameras in Kargudi, Theppkkadu and Mudumalai forest ranges on Saturday and Sunday.
Four teams were sent to Masinagudi where the tiger was last spotted on October 6, and one team was deployed near Singara road, where it is alleged to have killed two humans.
Chief Wildlife Warden Shekhar Kumar Neeraj said, "Samples taken from the cow which was killed by the tiger in Moyar and hair strands taken from the place where the tiger was lying have been sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for analysis."