Chennai, June 8 (BPNS)
The Tamil Nadu and Karnataka forest officials are in joint combing operations to capture a tiger that had killed three cows in broad daylight at Talavady in Erode district in three separate incidents in the past two weeks.
Forest officials in Tamil Nadu told BPNS that farmlands were 1 km from the Karnataka reserve forest area and 6 km from the Tamil Nadu forest reserve area in Talavadi.
Public was disturbed and scared after three cows were killed during broad daylight in the past two weeks, officials said. A senior officer with the forest department told BPNS that the farmers are worried due to the presence of the tiger during broad daylight. Forest officials from Talavadi Forest Range office in Hasanur division under the Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) placed cameras to monitor the movement of the big cat.
Forest officials confirmed that the pug marks have confirmed that the animal that killed three cows was indeed a tiger and said that bushes in the barren land had turned out to be safe hideouts of the tiger.
The forest officials of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu directed the farmers to clear the bushes on their land to prevent the tiger from using it as its hideout. The farmers of Talavadi were also directed by the forest officials not to venture out near the forest area for grazing their cattle. Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve has said that the compensation for the three cows was given to the farmers.
Senior officials of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve in Chamarajanagar forest division and officials of Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu have jointly commenced the combing operations against the tiger. The officials said that they are trying to locate the tiger and drive it inside the forest reserve area in Karnataka.
