COIMBATORE: Veterinarians, officials, and staff of the Tirupur forest division of the Anamalai tiger reserve have successfully captured a male tiger and released it in the home range after treating its injury which was caused by a snare.
The animal, aged between eight and nine years, fell into one of the three cages after being attracted to a goat inside the cage at Amaravathy forest range in Tirupur division of ATR on Saturday.
After 24 hours of gap, the animal was sedated on Sunday morning by assistant veterinary surgeon E Vijayaragavan along with Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) forest veterinary officer S Sathasivam.
Devendra Kumar Meena, deputy director of the Tirupur division of ATR, told TNIE that the animal was given sedation to carry out smooth treatment, and the treatment commenced 20 minutes after the animal fell into a semi-conscious state.
Initially, the officials suspected that a snare (sharp wire) intruded on the animal's body, and now they have confirmed that only a rope that was used to tie cattle was locked in the lower back of the big cat body, causing injury to him.
"We suspect that the poachers could have kept the snare using only a rope near the tribal settlements in the division targeting wild boar or spotted deer since keeping only a rope is also the practice of the poachers to capture the wild animals for consuming meat. However, unexpectedly, the rope caught in the big cat's body. The rope caused injury to the animal externally and there is no deep injury to him," he said.
A team of staff is monitoring the animal, which is active and delivering roaring sounds similar to the other tigers.
"We have taken biological samples from the animal during the treatment, which lasted for one and a half hours, for analysis," added Devandra Kumar Meena
According to sources, the animal was found injured while assessing the camera trap images during the end of May, and three cages have been setup to capture the animal. Animal activity was also monitored using the 80 camera traps at 40 different locations in the Amaravathy forest range. The Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy has also issued an order to tranquilise the animal on June 6. After nine days of continues operation, the animal fell into one of the cages on June 15.
S Ramasubramanian conservator of forests in the Coimbatore district and field director of ATR congratulated the sixteen members of the team led by Devndra Kumar Meena for successfully capturing, treating and releasing the animal back into the wild.