Hunsur: A tiger, which had killed a tribal youth at Ayyanakere Tribal Hamlet near Veeranahosahalli in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve Forest on Sept. 8 morning, has been found dead on Sept. 17.

Addressing media persons at his office in Hunsur on Tuesday, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Satish said that the experts of Tiger Cell constituted under the guidance of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have confirmed that the tiger which had killed tribal youth Ganesh is the same tiger which has been found dead.

The ACF said that the tiger was caught on the camera trap on the day it had killed the Ganesh and the stripes on its body and the stripes on the dead tiger were matched with the tiger that was caught on camera during the tiger census in July by the experts of Tiger Cell and as per their report, the dead tiger was the same which had killed Ganesh.

On Sept. 8, after the tiger had killed Ganesh, a team of Forest staff led by Nagarahole Director D. Mahesh Kumar under the guidance of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF) – Wildlife Division Vijaykumar had established a base camp at Neeralakuppe B. Colony to trap the tiger, ACF Satish said and added that four teams led by ACFs Gopal, Mahadev and Range Forest Officer (RFO) Hanumantharaju began the combing operations.

On Sept. 8 night, cages were placed at two different spots and the camera has recorded the tiger with a wound on its shoulder about 50 mts distance from the cage. From Sept. 9 to 16, 70 cameras were installed within 10 kms range, which have captured three different tigers moving in the vicinity.

Finally, on Sept. 17, combing operation was conducted with the help of tamed elephants Ganesh and Bheema and Ganesh traced the carcass of the tiger near Kallara Lake, ACF Satish said and added that the tiger may have died about a week back.

Staff of Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF), Nandan, Arpitha, Balaraj and Madhusudhan  of Special Strike Force (SSF),  Naveen and Gopi from the Technical Team and other Forest staff participated in the operation.