Tiger that mauled tribal man to death trapped near Mysuru

It is the third one caught in the Bandipur-Nagarahole belt in the last 10 days

A tiger that killed a Jenu Kuruba tribal at Nagarahole National Park was trapped late on Tuesday, much to the relief of the local community around Neralakuppe hamlet in Hunsur taluk of Mysuru district.

Jagadish (65), who went missing on Monday, was found mauled by a tiger and his body parts were retrieved in a combing operation on Tuesday afternoon.

The authorities swung into action almost immediately and, in a meticulously planned operation, managed to trap the tiger the same night. The conventional method of combing the area using elephants, tracing the tiger’s pugmarks and tranquillizing it was abandoned as heavy rains that lashed the region at night had washed away all traces of scent and pugmarks.

“We studied its behavioural and movement patterns based on the camera trap images obtained from various locations and realised that this particular tiger had a tendency to return to the spot of the cattle kill the same night. The tiger had killed four heads of cattle in recent days and, each time, it had returned to the spot of the kill,” explained Mahesh Kumar, Director, Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.

A few cages were placed at strategic locations outside Neralakuppe and the tiger, as expected, not only returned to the spot but also fell into the trap at night, he added.

The male tiger is around 12 years old and is known by its unique identification number U386. It has a canine missing, besides a tear in the upper lip, which has healed but the marks are prominently visible. It is an aged tiger pushed out of its territory by a younger one and hence was preying on livestock, the authorities said.

U386 has been shifted to Bannerghatta in Bengaluru and it is unlikely to be released back into the wild, given its condition and confirmed history of having tasted human blood.

This is the third tiger to have been trapped in the Bandipur-Nagarahole belt in the last 10 days, underlining the intensity of the human-animal conflict in the region. One tiger was trapped from Bandipur and another from the Virajpet territorial division in Kodagu bordering Nagarahole eight days ago.