MDT 23 or T-23, an old male tiger is giving sleepless nights to the Tamil Nadu’s forest department and the locals of Nilgiris district since September. The carnivore is believed to be have killed two people in the region and has attacked several cattle.
From live baits to nets, from drones to darts, the search team is using every possible method to track and capture the tiger alive.
T-23, a tiger which is believed to have killed two people and attacked cattle, escapes from a tea estate near Gudalur on Spetember 29, 2021. It has remained elusive since then.
Thermal drone is being used to track the tiger at Singara Road in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on October 5, 2021.
The forest department has taken the help of local herdsmen to track T23.
The Kerala forest team too joined the search operation on October 7, 2021 after the tiger was spotted in the neighbouring State for a brief time.
A forest staff announces the public not to venture into the forest, in Masinagudi.
A forest tracker sits atop a tree at Masinagudi-Singara Road after receiving information on spotting a tiger in the region.
Cattle are being used as live baits to lure the old male tiger. A team of vets are sitting on Machans with their darts ready, on October 6, 2021. Rain plays the spoilsport that day.
The vets team leader Kalaivanan tests his dart gun in the wee hours on October 6, 2021.
Chief Wildlife Warden Shekhar Kumar Niraj, on elephant back, leads the teams.
Kumki elephant Sreenivasan has also been pressed into the service to assist the operation.
Chandran, a Gudalur resident who was attacked by the carnivore, is being treated at Government Medical College Hospital in Udhagamandalam on September 24, 2021. He succumbed to injuries on the same day.
Locals join hands with the Masinagudi forest team in the tiger hunt on October 1, 2021.
The Mudumalai tiger reserve camera team install cameras at Masinagudi to locate T-23, on October 2, 2021.
Despite heavy rains, the forest team conducted extensive search at Mayfield tea estate near Gudalur. Here, the team takes a short break for lunch, on September 27, 2021.
Special tracking teams joined the search operation inside the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on October 2, 2021. More than 75 forest personnel, including expert trackers and special task force members, are engaged in on-ground operations to track T-23.
A tracking team analyses a pugmark believed to be that of tiger T23 at the buffer zone of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on October 4, 2021.
A net gun demonstration being conducted in Masinagudi by forest team and NGOs, to check if it can be used to capture the tiger on October 3, 2021.
The darting team prepares to dart the tiger on October 2, 2021 after they got information of suspected movement. But the tiger couldn’t be located.