A tigress, which was declared a man-eater and facing a shoot-at-sight order, was found dead near a house early Monday in Kerala’s Wayanad. The carcass of the tigress, approximately 6 to 7 years old, had infighting wounds when its body was found in the Mananthavady area, said forest department officials.
On Sunday, Kerala Forest Minister A K Saseendran declared the tigress responsible for the death of the 45-year-old tribal woman last Friday, and ordered that it be shot dead.
Deepa K S, Chief Conservator of Forest, North Kerala, told the media in Mananthavady that the tigress was identified as the one that killed the tribal woman last Friday and attacked a forest official, who was a part of the Rapid Response Team searching for the animal, Sunday. Deepa said all the 38 cameras in the region had the visuals of the same tiger.
The tigress was spotted around midnight at Palakkavu within the Mananthavady municipal area, and the forest department teams tracking the animal found it dead in a nearby area.
Dr Arun Zachariah, Chief Vet Surgeon, also a part of the search team, said the tigress’s body bore wounds both old and fresh. Zachariah said it was suspected that these wounds were sustained during infighting with other tigers.
Following the death of the woman in the tiger attack, Mananthavady in Wayanad witnessed massive protests against the forest department’s failure to bring down the escalating attacks from wild animals.
After the animal attacked a forest official, who was part of the team tracking the tiger, the department Sunday abandoned the plan to dart the man-eating tiger and ordered it to kill the big cat.
A curfew has been imposed in selected divisions under the Mananthavady municipal area for 48 hours starting Monday morning.
