Mysuru: A 7 year old male tiger has been caught by the forest department officials near Metikuppe Forest region in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. The officials and veterinary doctors tranquilized the man eater near Chikkabaragi village in Bandipur national park on Thursday evening. The tiger has now been released to the Kurgalli rehabilitation in the outskirts of the city.
According to the local villagers they had observed the presence of the Tiger from past two weeks had sighted it twice. This created panic across the area. On Thursday a woman who had been to the Hebbala Canal, a nearby place where she used to wash her clothes sighted the tiger and raised the alarm. Villagers who were on the alert informed the forest officials. Following this, officials along with Dr. Umashankar Veterinary Doctor and other staff reached the spot by 8. 30 am in the morning but they could not catch the Tiger until 11 am. Finally the officers fired tranquilizing shots at the Tiger. For a while the Tiger tried to attack the people gathered there.
Though the situation triggered fear among the villagers, as soon as the Tiger was caught a huge crowd gathered. When the officers were trying to place the animal they found injuries on its leg and decided to shift it to the rehabilitation centre in Kurgalli. RFO Puttaswamy, Nagendra, Jalendra,Lingaraju along with 50 other staff carried out the operation.
Officials suspected that the Tiger might have come out in search of food and got injured in the process or might have had a clash with another animal and driven out as it is usually survival of the fittest in the forest.
The officers said that they will take a call on the release of the Tiger only after the Tiger recovers from injury.
