A tiger cub that was found stranded in a tea estate near Valparai, around 120 km from Coimbatore city, was rescued by the Forest Department late on Tuesday.
The male cub was weak and it had a porcupine quill lodged on its body when it was rescued from Thaimudi estate by a special team.
The cub has been shifted to the animal rescue centre at Rottikadai near Valparai.
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S. Ramasubramanian, Field Director of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), said that the cub was found roaming in Thaimudi area of Manombolly forest range of ATR for about two days. A Forest team that observed the cub found that it was weak and stranded.
“The situation was briefed to the Chief Wildlife Warden Shekhar Kumar Niraj, who directed to form a special team based on the standard operating procedure of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
The team combed the estate area from 3 p.m. Tuesday and the forest staff managed to capture the cub around 9.30 p.m. using net. We did not use tranquilliser or a cage for the capture,” he said.
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Veterinarian Manoharan, Prof. Muthukrishnan of Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tirunelveli, and N.S. Manoharan, Regional Joint Director of Veterinary Services (retired), were part of the operation.
Deputy Director of ATR M.G. Ganesan, Manombolly Forest Range Officer A. Manikandan, NTCA nominated expert Ganesh Ragunathan from the Nature Conservation Foundation, D. Boominathan from the WWF-India, honorary wildlife warden Nandhini Raveendran and ATR staff carried out the operation.
Mr. Manikandan said that the tiger cub was active on Wednesday morning after it was given food.
Mr. Ramasubramanian said the decision on further care of the tiger would be decided by the Chief Wildlife Warden.