Kerala: Chief Wildlife Warden orders to capture cattle-hunting tiger that killed 4 cows in 2 days in Wayanad

Wayanad: The Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) of Kerala on Sunday issued an order to capture a 10-year-old male tiger by tranquilising, following the killing of four cows in two consecutive days in Edakkad and Kenichira regions of the district, on directions of Forest Minister K Saseedharan.

The tiger, identified as Tholpetty-17 by Forest department, killed one K Sabu's cow at around 2200 hours on Saturday night and later killed two more cows of Maliyakkel Benny at around 0300 hrs on Sunday, the trio were in the cow shed about half kilometres away from the residential area.

Following this incident, irate farmers and local residents carried out a road blockade at Kenichar town with carcass of one of the cows on a tractor, from 0900 hrs till noon, demanding to issue an order to shoot the tiger at sight.

The Forest department had set up two cages and surveillance cameras at different spots in the region following the sighting of a tiger by local residents after killing of a cow of one T Varghese, last Thursday.

The locals called off their agitation following assurance that the government would provide compensation to them, and the tiger would be captured immediately by the Palakkad Divisional Forest officer (DFO) B Ranjith, who is in-charge of Wayanad South DFO, after a meeting with District Collector Renuraj in afternoon.

In light of this development, the Forest department has intensified day and night patrolling to capture the tiger at Kenichar and nearby areas.