An injured tiger on the prowl near Doddabargi village in the Hediyala range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve was trapped and tranquilised on Monday. The action was necessitated following a villager coming under attack by a wild animal last evening presumed to be a leopard.
Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director Ambadi Madhav told The Hindu that a combing operation was launched on Monday and the Forest Department staff identified pug marks in the periphery of the village and believed that it was a tiger. They pressed into the jungles with a vehicle and found a crouching tiger in the vegetation.
While it is the natural behaviour of the big cats to slink into the woods on sighting humans, this tiger lay crouching and refused to budge leading to suspicion that it was injured. The veterinarian was summoned and on confirmation that it had injured itself and hence was slightly immobile, permission was sought from the PCCF (Wildlife) to tranquilise it, he said. It was later shifted to Mysuru zoo for treatment and observation, he added.
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The tiger is aged around seven and is in the prime of its life. It is suspected to have injured itself in a territorial fight. Hediyala, which is spread over 100 sq km, harbours nearly 20 to 25 tigers. But there is little or no buffer separating the national park from the village and hence the landscape also sees a high number of human animal conflicts every year.