Two people have been killed in the past two days in these attacks.
A 58-year-old estate labourer, Chinnappan is suspected to have been killed by a panther on Monday night in Doddabetta in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
Just a day before this incident, a 33-year-old woman, Kavitha was killed by a panther at Thooneri village near Ooty, when she was taking a short cut through the forest close to her house.
Officials suspect the same animal could be behind both attacks. The Forest Department has advised local people and tourists to not go into the forest or nearby areas.
Authorities have also laid out traps to catch the predator. A senior Forest Officer told NDTV "We suspect it is a panther attack. The other possibility is it could be a tiger. After killing human beings the animal would turn fearless and would repeat its attacks. Hence we want to catch the killer cat at the earliest".
The Tamil Nadu Government has awarded a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the family of the first victim and compensation is likely to be announced for the other victim's family as well.