3 hunters, 50 officials pursue tiger under shadow of pandemic
nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For almost a week now, three hunters, 50 forest and district officials and some of the residents of Thannithode, a village in central Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, are on the trail of a tiger that strayed into a human habitation and killed a rubber tapper last week.
The cat is smart.
The hunters tried to bait the tiger with a live goat, but while they were waiting for it, the tiger attacked and killed a cow elsewhere in the village.
It’s since been seen at many places around the village, attacked more cows, even goats and dogs; forest department officials have been using night vision cameras and drones, but while the tiger has been spotted several times, it eluded all efforts to capture it.
Meanwhile, the 13,000-odd villagers of Thannithode are living in fear. The village is surrounded by sparse forests. The closest deep forest is at least 25 km away. And the closest tiger reserve, Periyar, is 105km away. It isn’t strange to find a tiger outside the reserve, although it is unusual for the predator to come close to a human habitation.
It all began with the attack on rubber tapper Bineesh Mathew (38) on May 6 when he went to tap rubber trees. When his colleagues heard his cries and rushed to him, just in time to see a tiger dragging him away. They pelted stones and yelled, and the tiger dropped him and escaped into the forest. Mathew died on the spot. Later, Pathanamthitta district collector PB Nooh issued prohibitory orders in the village.
“It is a big tiger. It could either be old or injured. The attack happened around noon,” said T Mathew, a tapper, who witnessed the attack.
Wildlife experts said tiger attacks are rare in Kerala that has two tiger reserves and five wildlife sanctuaries.the state has 190 tigers, as per the 2019 tiger census.
“We are trying our best to tranquillise it and shift it to deep forests. Many top forest and veterinary officials are camping in the area and we will try our best to capture the tiger alive. If this fails, we will shoot it,” said state forest minister K Raju, who announced a relief of ₹10 lakh to the family members of the victim.
Conservationists have asked the government to try and relocate the animal.