An injured tiger on prowl for the last three weeks in parts of Kerala's Wayanad district continues to evade the traps set by the Forest department.
The district authorities have deployed six battalions of forces comprising police and forest officials. Locals from the Kurichi tribal community have also been included in the search team to locate the tiger.
Forest officials are also planning to construct temporary watch houses on tree-tops to locate the tiger and have deployed experts to use tranquiliser guns.
"Nearly 200 police, forest officials and others are trying to locate the tiger. We are planning to construct watch houses on tree tops and there will be officials with tranquilizer guns," a senior police official told news agency PTI.
Senior wildlife officials from Thiruvananthapuram are on their way to Wayanad district.
A senior wildlife official told news agency PTI that they are trying their best to capture the animal.
"The tiger is an evasive creature. We are trying our level best. It's an injured one too. We hope to catch it soon" the official said.
Kumki elephants (trained captive elephants used in operations to trap wild animals) are being used to destroy the shrub forest where the tiger may hide.
Meanwhile, there were news reports of a fight between the locals and the forest officials.
The locals are alleging that even after the forest department was alerted of tiger presence in a nearby area, they failed to take any action Thursday night.
Johnson, a local resident, told PTI that the local administration has been announcing warnings to the people not to venture out.
"There are exams in certain schools. Since this is the situation, the forest department has arranged transportation of the students to the schools for the exam. People who need to cut grass for their livestock are unable to do so for many days. This is affecting the farm animals too," Mr Johnson said.
The district authorities have extended the prohibitary orders in the divisions 11,12,13 and 14 and other adjacent divisions.
The tiger has so far killed 17 cows and goats in the last 20 days. The Forest department has installed nearly 90 cameras to capture the image of the tiger, only one photo was captured until now. The authorities are finding it difficult to locate the tiger using drones as there are coffee plants growing among the tall trees making it difficult to identify the beast.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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