Forest Department captures tiger in thrilling operation

Ponnampet, Feb. 11: The Forest Department has succeeded in capturing a 6-year-old male tiger, a cattle-eating animal that had killed 7 cattle in a month in the limits of Besagur, Nallur and Kotur villages of Ponnampet taluk, creating fear among the villagers and becoming a headache for the Forest Department officials. The captured tiger has been released to the Bannerghatta National Park. On Ta. 8, the tiger had killed a total of 3 cows in Besagur in a single night, including two cows belonging to Bachamada Rajappa and a pregnant cow belonging to Ballimada Sampath. On this occasion, the office bearers of the Farmers' Association, including the district president of the Farmers' Association, Manu Somaiah, and the villagers had protested and expressed their strong anger at the Forest Department and demanded that the tiger be captured.

Exciting operation

On the advice of A. S. Ponnanna, MLA of Virajpet constituency and legal advisor to the Chief Minister, Kodagu CCF Sonal Vrishni, who had visited Besaguru village on Ta. 9, informed the government about the tiger's plight. In this context, the government had ordered to capture the cattle-killing tiger on Ta. 10.

As soon as the government gave a written order, the forest department officials, who made all the preparations for the capture of the tiger, called Bhima from the Mattigodu elephant camp near Thitimathi and Mahendra from the Balle elephant camp in H. D. Kote taluk. The officials, who wanted to use modern technology for the operation, called two state-of-the-art drone cameras and expert drone operators that can operate even at night. More than 80 personnel, including sharpshooters and veterinary officers, started the operation to capture the tiger in the evening with full readiness. At around 7 pm, the drone camera detected the tiger hiding in the bushes by the stream. Immediately after receiving information about the presence of the tiger, the operation team, which confirmed that it was a cattle-eating tiger, waited near the cow's ravine, thinking that the tiger might come to eat the carcass of a cow that was not far away, and then it would be easy to use the device. Although time passed, the tiger did not move, but the drone camera was still watching the tiger.

Instead of wasting time by staying near the carcass of the cow, the operation team decided to go to the tiger's place, based on the tip of the drone camera, and went to the tiger's place with the elephants Bhima and Mahendra.

Sharpshooter Ranjan was sitting on the elephant Bhima, while the anaesthetic expert Dr. Ramesh was sitting on the elephant Mahendra, observing the tiger. Seeing the right opportunity, at around 11 pm, Dr. Ramesh was successful in targeting the tiger and anesthetizing it. The operation team, who had been holding their breath till then, sighed in relief after the operation was successful. This also relieved the anxious villagers.

Gundanna, the elephant's mahout, Nanju, and Raju and Mallikarjun, the elephant's mahouts, acted as the charioteers. This is the first case of a tiger being tracked and captured using a drone camera in Kodagu. The captured tiger was transported from Besagur to Titimati within a few minutes, and from there it was released to Bannerghatta National Park in the morning. Under the direction of Kodagu CCF Sonal Vrishni, under the guidance of Virajpet Division DFO Jagannath, and under the leadership of ACF Gopal, the operation was participated by Virajpet ACF Tahseen Banu, Ponnampet RFO Gangadhar, Virajpet RFO Shivaram, Anechaukur RFO Devaraj, Kallalla RFO Abhishek, Timber Depot RFO Rajashekar, DRFOs Diwakar, Sridhar, Nagesh, Rakshit, RRT staff, and forest guards. NGOs, NTCA members, Gram Panchayat members, villagers, farmers' associations were present on this occasion.

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