Elaborate operation on to capture tigress and her cubs in Wayanad

Forest department sets up two cages of different sizes to capture the animals that have triggered panic in the area by killing livestock

Published - October 30, 2024 08:09 pm IST - KALPETTA

Forest officials giving final touches to a big cage sourced from Mysuru to capture a tigress and its three cubs at Anappara under the South Wayanad forest division in Wayanad.

Forest officials giving final touches to a big cage sourced from Mysuru to capture a tigress and its three cubs at Anappara under the South Wayanad forest division in Wayanad. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The Kerala Forest department is making an attempt to capture a family of four tigers — comprising a tigress and her three cubs — in Wayanad.

The operation, named Operation Royal Stripes, launched to address residents’ growing concerns, comes in response to the tigers posing a major threat over the past week, roaming the vicinity of Anappara tea estate of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. (HML) and the surrounding areas of Chundel under the South Wayanad Forest Division.

Tension peaked when the tigers reportedly attacked livestock, killing three cows grazing within the tea estate on October 21 and another cow near the estate bungalow on October 27. Following these incidents, forest officials set up camera traps, capturing images of the mother tiger, approximately nine years old, along with her sub-adult cubs, each around one-and-a-half years old.

From Mysuru

However, the tigress’s image has not yet been included in the Forest department’s records, as the tiger census utilising camera traps has not yet been completed in the territorial forest divisions.

To facilitate the capture, the Forest department has deployed both a smaller cage and a larger trap sourced from Mysuru. The smaller cage, baited with remnants of a recently killed cow, aims to attract the mother tigress. Once captured, this tigress may help lure her cubs into the larger cage measuring 32 feet long and 10 feet tall, according to senior officials.

Thermal drone search

On Wednesday, officials utilised a thermal drone to search for the tigers in a swampy area of the estate, where they were spotted days before. However, they have yet to obtain images confirming the presence of the tigers, Ajith K. Raman, the Divisional Forest Officer for South Wayanad told The Hindu.

Efforts to drive the tigers toward the nearby Anappara forest, which borders the Chembra forest in the Meppadi range, proved unfruitful. It is believed that a dominant male tiger in the Chembra area may be preventing the tigress and her cubs from leaving their present territory. Mr. Raman expressed concern that should the sub-adult tigers enter the male tiger’s domain, they could get killed.

“We anticipate that the predators may be captured within the next couple of days,” he stated, adding that patrolling in the area has been intensified.

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