Forest officials of Bandipur National Park traps injured tigress

Chamarajanagara: A tigress, which was seen with a snare entangled in its neck in Kerala has been trapped in the Gundre Range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve here, Forest officials said on Monday.

The Karnataka Forest Department officials successfully trapped the injured tigress. It fell into a cage at Gundre as the staff had kept meat inside on Sunday.

Forest officials said that it is illegal to capture a wild tiger within the core forest area. But the Department officials decided to trap it as the snare had endangered its life.

Also, the tigress had injured three Department staffers in Kerala including a Forest Ranger when they tried to capture it after firing a dart.

The tigress had triggered panic among local residents at Kolavally in Wayanad on the Kerala-Karnataka border. The big cat, aged about seven years, had killed three domestic animals.

The Karnataka Forest officials also deployed Kumki elephants to search for the tiger. Camera trap details of the tigress and that of the big cat that was found in Kerala were analysed. The images were compared with those from Kerala, to confirm whether it is the same animal or not.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director SR Natesh said that the priority was to treat the animal for its injuries. Hence, the tiger is now being shifted to Chamundi Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre at Koorgalli near Mysuru, he added.

Last month It was estimated that since the last three decades the tiger, elephant and leopard population has increased in Bandipur, while on the other hand in some forest areas the number of wild animals has decreased.

As per the data available in the 1020 sq km area 2500 elephants, 173 tigers, more than 300 leopards and other animals are reported.

Karnataka has been the tiger state before Madhya pradesh clinched the title in 2019. However Karnataka is still the number 2 in terms of Tiger's population.(UNI)