Eight-year-old cattle-lifting tigress caged near Bandipur

MYSURU: A tigress, which had been attacking cattle in the border villages of Bandipur tiger reserve, was captured with bait on Sunday. Under the care of Mysuru Zoo, it has been shifted to the Koorgahalli facility on the outskirts of the city.
The eight-year-old big cat is healthy and there are no external injuries barring a few canines damaged in efforts to escape the cage.
Villagers in and around HD Kote had complained to the forest department that the tiger was prowling in the border areas for 45 days and lifting livestock at will. It had killed around 20 cattle as it was looking for easy prey, an official said. The last of the kills was on Saturday.
The foresters summoned Dasara elephants to nab the tiger and launched combing operations. The tiger was spotted a few times but it managed to give the elephants the slip. As it started to venture out of the woods repeatedly, the foresters sought the permission of the PCCF (Wildlife), the chief wildlife warden, to capture it. Once the permission was given, a cage was placed at Kalasur, just outside the N Begur Range, with a slab of meat in it. At 12.30am, the tiger walked in and was caged. Early in the day, it was shifted to Mysuru and by 10am, to Koorgahalli.
Vet Dr DN Nagaraj told TOI that the big cat had no external injuries. It sustained some minor injuries when it tried to escape after being caged. Mysuru district wildlife warden Krithika Alanahalli said zoo authorities were now looking after the tigress.
62 sheep killed by predator in Chikkaballapura district
Bengaluru: It was a gory Sunday morning at Nallala Halli in Chikkaballapura district after villagers found carcasses of 62 sheep in a pool of blood in a shed owned by family and relatives of Venkataramanappa.
While villagers suspect a leopard had attacked the sheep, foresters are awaiting the post mortem report.
Chikkaballapura range forest officer Vikram RN said the incident took place on Saturday night. “We don’t know whether the sheep were attacked by a leopard or a pack of dogs. Leopards usually kill a sheep or a two, but there have been instances of mass killing too. The nearest forest is at least 7km away. We found a gap in the stone-slab shed and the predator may have sneaked in through it. Sheep being killed in such large numbers in this manner is unheard of here,” he added.
Another forest official from Chikkaballapura said villagers who are friends or members of a large family put sheep in one shed to save money. “The owners are shattered. We’ve already initiated the process to give compensation,” he added.
In March 2018, a leopard killed 15 sheep in Kyalanur village, Kolar district. In February 2016, two leopards killed 59 sheep at Naganala, another village .