“The tiger was moving from the forest areas to fringe areas, in a 20 km radius around Chowdiah and Hindupra villages. The terrain and thick bushes made our job very difficult,” Ravi added.
The Bandipur tiger reserve, a popular tourist destination in southern India, is a 872 square km reserve forest in Chamarajanagar district on the border with Tamil Nadu. It is about 220 kms southwest of Bengaluru.
Informed sources said, “The district authorities will have to issue Section 144 to ensure that they can transport the animal safely to Mysuru as there is a lot of anger among the public.”
The hunt for the tiger began on Tuesday after 80-year-old Shivalingappa was killed by the big cat in the Hundipura area in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve. The situation was volatile, with villagers angry with the Forest Department . The tiger is also suspected of having killed another farmer and several cattle in September.
Cameras were set up to track its movements and traps were set up. By Wednesday, there were more than 100 camera traps, 150 forest staff on six elephants and multiple vehicles taking part in the operations. Visuals from the camera traps showed that the tiger is a healthy one and was moving very quickly.
