With panic prevailing at Seshan Nagar in Talavadi here for the last one week after a tiger killed three cows, the Forest Department has decided to deploy two drones to track the movement of the tiger and chase it back into the forest area in Karnataka.
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The village is located one km away from the Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple (BRT) tiger reserve in Chamrajanagar district of Karnataka and six km away from the reserve forest area coming under Talavadi Range Office in Hasanur Division of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR). Bushes in the barren patta lands in the village turned out to be safe hideouts for the tiger that ventured out from the Karnataka forest area.
Officials of both STR and BRT tiger reserve met at the village and decided to jointly monitor the movement of the tiger. Also, land owners were asked to clear bushes in their land.
On Wednesday night, S. Ramasubramanian, Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of STR, Devendra Kumar Meena, District Forest Officer, Hasanur Division and Deputy Field Director of STR, visited the village and held discussions with the team involved in monitoring the tiger. Mr. Ramasubramanian asked the team, led by S. Sathish, Talavadi Range Officer, to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) in handling the issue, including forming a committee comprising local panchayat president and NGO representative. He later interacted with farmers and told them compensation for the three cattle kills were given by the Forest Department.
It was decided to induct one drone each from STR and BRT to monitor the area and locate the tiger so that it can be chased back into the forest. Also, it was decided to place camera traps near water bodies located in the area and also burn the remains of cattle carcasses.