Elusive tiger gives a slip; now spotted at K. Badaga

• Forest Department halts combing operation as permission was only for four days 
• Senior officials to visit forest camps today to take a call on resuming trapping operation

Ponnampet: The elusive tiger that has spread terror in parts of South Kodagu has given a slip to the Forest Department staff, who are camping at T. Shettigeri and conducting combing operation. The tiger has moved to nearby K. Badaga village. 

Over 150 personnel are involved in the trapping operation that has proved unsuccessful even after five days after a teenager Ayyappa and a 60-year-old woman Chinni along with a couple of cattle heads became prey to the big cat. 

The tiger has moved from the epicentre of the operation — Srimangala, T. Shettigeri and Thavalageri — and has moved to K. Badaga village. The feline was spotted yesterday afternoon at a coffee estate owned by Appanderanda Poovaiah Ramesh. As per Ramesh’s account, it is a fully grown huge tiger that was lurking inside his property. 

He spotted the big cat at around 3.30 pm when it was raining heavily. The tiger was sighted just 50 metres from his house as Ramesh went near the house windows to see the rain. He Immediately called up his neighbours, estate workers and other people in the vicinity and asked them not to venture out of their homes as the tiger was on the prowl. 

He directed his estate workers to burst firecrackers hoping that the tiger may leave the area due to the cracker sound. The Forest Department officials camping at T. Shettigeri were alerted and a team arrived at Ramesh’s house and took photos of the pug marks to compare with the other pug marks obtained in the last five days. 

Photos of pug marks taken

The pug marks will determine if it is the same tiger that had killed human beings and cattle heads or in case it is a different feline. The officials also advised the villagers not to venture out of their homes. Villagers, however, said that despite the tiger being spotted at K. Badaga, the trapping operation has not begun. The Department officials only visited the spot and took the photos of pug marks and returned without any action plan, they alleged. 

K. Badaga is around three to four kilometres from the spot where the teenager was killed on Feb. 20 and the big cat is roaming within this vicinity. While the villagers are suspecting that looking at the size of the tiger, it might be the same cat that had killed the boy and the woman. Even the woman’s (Chinni) son, who had accompanied his mother to pick mushrooms on the morning of Feb. 21 when the tiger attacked her, had reported that it was a huge cat and after killing his mother, the tiger had dragged her body a couple of metres into an estate with brute force. 

On Feb. 22, PUC student Kechamada Raksha from Mathoor village spotted the tiger inside a coffee estate while she was going to her school. Seeing the huge animal, Raksha fainted and was admitted to a hospital in Mysuru. She is back home but still in a state of shock, unable to speak even to her parents. 

Permission for 4 days

Scared of the big cat, the villagers have remained indoors leaving behind their coffee estate works during this crucial peak coffee picking season. Meanwhile, sources told Star of Mysore that the Forest Department personnel camping at T. Shettigeri had permission to carry out trapping operation only for four days and as such the operation ended  on Feb. 24. 

Today, senior Department officials including Chief Conservator of Forests would visit the camp and are likely to take a call on resuming or halting the trapping operation. They are likely to visit K. Badaga too. Taking objections to the Department halting the trapping operations, villagers of Srimangala, T. Shettigeri, Kumatoor, Bellur, Harihara, Kotur and Hermad have urged the elected representatives and the higher officials of the Kodagu District Administration to intervene and direct the officials to resume the operation and either trap or  shoot the tiger.