An unmanned aerial vehicle was pressed into service on Saturday to search the tiger that attacked an estate worker in Kodagu on Friday. There was, however, no sign of the tiger.
The drone camera — provided to the Department of Forests by two volunteers from Bengaluru, Sunil and Madhu, who have been trained as eco-volunteers — flew repeatedly along the Anechowkur–Kalahalla border. A patch of 15 sq. km of Nagarahole forest was scanned from air, while Dasara elephant Abhimanyu, accompanied by elephants Drona and Krishna, backed up the efforts by combing the land, but the tiger remained elusive.
Abhimanyu and company combed the Anechowkur–Kalahalla border abutting the Lakshmantirtha river near Balele–Nittur villages without any results. The department had left word at the local estates to inform them of any tiger sighting, but none was reported.
Conservator of Forests Manoj Kumar told The Hindu that the drone was used for nearly four hours and flew for nearly 20 minutes at a stretch before being brought down for recharging.
Four camera-traps in the area did not capture even a single image of the tiger. The camera-traps were laid in the hope that tiger’s movement could be recorded and its image captured to match with the available database so as to ascertain its identity. The forest patch selected for scanning and combing was based on pug marks seen on Friday along the river bank, with imprints leading towards the forests. No fresh pug marks could be established on Saturday. Meanwhile, two trap cages with live bait have been put up at vantage points in anticipation of the tiger’s movement. “Though a section of local community suspect that the tiger had moved back into the jungles there was no evidence to substantiate it and hence the operations will continue,” said Mr. Manoj Kumar. The tiger had attacked a coffee-estate worker, Bolla alias Kariya, on Friday and he is being treated in a Mysuru hospital.
