Coimbatore: The tenth day of the operation to locate and tranquillise tiger T23 in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) started today morning, with the Forest Department sources saying they are hopeful of catching it soon.
Teams on elephant-back and on foot combed through the Masinagudi and Singara forest ranges in search of the tiger.
More logistics support came in from the neighbouring forest divisions in Kerala and Karnataka on Sunday, with the latter also despatching a trained sniffer dog.
Tamilnadu Chief Wildlife Warden Shekar Kumar Niraj issued an order to hunt āT23ā, a tiger, which is said to have killed four persons so far, including a 55-year-old man on Friday, in Nilgiris district after concluding that the big cat has ābecome very dangerousā to human life in the area.
The order was issued after a week-long effort by the Forest Department to catch the tiger alive failed. The Forest Department came under severe pressure from locals after the news of the tiger fatally attacking its fourth target spread like wildfire. Villagers in Masinagudi and Gudalur complain that the tiger has been wreaking havoc in the area.