Mysuru: In the last 15 days, a tiger killed three cows causing panic among the local community on the fringes of Bandipur Tiger Reserve at Akkalapura near Begur of Gundulpet Taluk in Chamarajanagar district. The forest officials have placed a cage at the spot to nab it and are planning to get three to four elephants for the operation if it is not found or trapped on June 28.
The forest officials suspected that the tiger may have strayed from the nearby Bandipur Tiger Reserve which is nearly 18 km from the village where the tiger killed the third cow. Though the authorities scanned nearly 13 km in the surrounding area they could not track any pug marks owing to the overgrowth of vegetation in the vicinity.
Speaking to Newskarnataka, Naveen Kumar, Range Forest Officer said, “For the last 15 days, the tiger is posing a problem for cows which come for grazing. To start with, it killed a cow in Chikkati village. Later, only a few days ago at Hospura village, again it killed a cow and on June 27 morning another one at Akkalapura village. Due to lots of shrubs, once the tiger gets inside them, it’s very difficult to trace but still, our staff members have gone all out in their efforts to trace the big cat posing a threat to the cows grazing. We have deployed our staff and even created awareness among the people. Already we have requested the veterinary wing for four elephants. On June 29, we will start our intensive combing operation. If we are not able to trap or trace the big cat, we will start taking the help of elephants. There is no doubt about the owner of the slain cows getting compensation but more than that we are worried about the life of the people”.
