Was tranquillised with the help of tamed elephants

H.D. Kote: An aged tiger, which had killed domestic animals in and around Moorband, Kalsur, Hegganur and N. Begur in Sargur taluk, has been finally captured after tranquillising it with the help of tamed elephants near an agricultural field at Devalapura hundi village yesterday.

According to the technical report from the Forest Department, the Tiger Cell, on July 29, had received a tiger image from the Range Forest Officer (RFO), N. Begur Range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve which was captured by the cameras installed near the conflict location at N. Begur Range. The Tiger Cell again in the months of August and September received the images of the tiger from the RFO.

The tiger images were compared with the tiger photo-data base of the Tiger Cell, Aranya Bhavan in Bengaluru, which matched the Bandipur tiger (Bandipur15_U1779) and based on the body size and physical appearance from the photos and photo-capture history of this tiger, the age was estimated to be about 9-10 years. The same tiger images were received in April 2020 from the RFO, which were captured in the camera traps.

The Forest Department officials observed that the photographic evidence and photo-capture history showed that the tiger (Bandipur15_U1779) was an old resident tiger of N. Begur and Gundre Ranges since 2015 and it had dispersed from Gundre-N. Begur Ranges into the villages outside its natural territory and outside Bandipur Tiger Reserve in September 2020 where the cattle kill – conflict incidents had occurred. 

The conflict incidents from the past 50 days occurred in different locations, spread widely across N. Begur Range and the tiger (Bandipur15_U1779) was photo-captured traversing in each of the conflict location where the cameras were installed.

It was also observed that the tiger appeared to be an old and weakened male tiger and is evident from the capture history map that it was evicted from its home range and was traversing in search of easy prey such  as cattle. 

Finally, the Forest Department staff installed camera traps in and around the conflict locations and was located during the  combing operations using tamed elephants.

It was  successfully tranquillised yesterday and was later shifted to the rehabilitation centre at Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bengaluru.

After learning about the operation, curious villagers thronged Devalapura Hundi to have a glimpse of the tiger. The forest personnel had a tough time controlling the crowd.