Ten camera traps have been installed in forests close to Haadanuru Vodeyanapura in Nanjangud, where a farmer was killed by a tiger on Tuesday.
The camera traps are already functional, but no fresh tiger image has been captured so far. A scrutiny of the images captured would help ascertain if there was any tiger in the vicinity that was injured and hence prone to stalk cattle on the forest fringes.
Assistant Conservator of Forests Poovaiah said that in case the tiger is injured, it was bound to make another attempt to kill fresh prey, and hence the area is being monitored closely. The local people have also been advised not to venture close to the forest boundary, he added.
Meanwhile, the last rites of Nagraju (35), who was killed on the forest boundary close to his village when he was tending to his cattle, was performed on Wednesday. Earlier, the authorities handed over the body to the family members on completion of the post-mortem and other formalities. A compensation of Rs. 2 lakh has already been given and an additional Rs.3 lakh is due from the government.
Mr. Pooviah suspected that the tiger involved in Tuesday’s attack could be the same cat which had preyed on domestic cattle a few months ago near Begur, which was driven into the forests by elephants arranged by the Forest Department. “The people of that village have not reported any fresh cattle kills since then,” he said.
Hence the authorities are contemplating to rope in a few elephants along the forest boundary, to drive away the tiger. But if the animal is incapacitated to hunt, it is bound to play hide and seek in the area, as feeding on domestic cattle is easier than hunting in the wild, and this may force the authorities to capture the animal.
There are more than 20 tigers in a 180 sq km area in the Hediyala range of Bandipur National Park. But the range had a good prey density to support more carnivores, according to the officials, who ruled out depletion of prey base or an excess of tiger population as the reason for some of the wild cats to stray from their natural habitat.
