An unmanned aerial vehicle was pressed into service on Saturday to search for 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 — flew repeatedly along the Anechowkur-Kalahalla border.
A forest patch of 15 sq. km was scanned from air, while forest department workers on Dasara elephant Abhimanyu, accompanied by elephants Drona and Krishna, backed up the efforts by combing the land.
No results
The forest department workers on elephants combed the Anechowkur–Kalahalla border abutting the Lakshmantirtha river near Balele–Nittur villages without any results. The department officials 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. It flew for 20 minutes at a stretch before being brought down for recharging.
Four camera-traps, laid to record the tiger’s movement in the area, did not capture a single image of the tiger.
