Elusive 'man-eater' T23 tiger captured near Masinagudi, after 21 days

The Elusive T23 tiger, which killed four people in the surrounding area of the Nilgiris has been captured alive after a long search near Masinagudi on October 15. The condition of the tiger is stable and it will be taken to Mysore zoological park for further treatment, writes Senior Reporter R Lenin

Chennai: After 21 days of the marathon search, the T-23 tiger, which eluded forest officials after mauling 4 persons and dozens of cattle to death, has finally been tranquilised and captured alive in Masinagudi Reserve Forest in Coimbatore district in the afternoon of Friday.

Forest Minister K Ramachandran said, "As of now, the condition of the tiger is stable and the four-member doctor's team is monitoring the health of the wildcat. The captured tiger will be taken to Mysore zoological park for further treatment." Earlier, there was a talk that the injured tiger will be brought to Aringar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur.

The male old tiger had killed four persons in Gudalur forests 20 days ago. Even as the team of wildlife experts along with Tamil Nadu forest officials and NGO staff had been intensifying search operations to capture the wildcat alive, it was a big challenge for them to track down the tiger, which remained elusive in bushes in the forests.

Sensing that the tiger could be a man-eater, the forest officials had decided to shoot down it. However, a wildlife activist from Noida protested this and filed a petition before the Madras High Court stating that the wildcat should not be shot dead. Accepting the petition, the court directed forest officials not to kill the tiger by shooting. The court also ruled that the forest department could capture the wildcat alive.

Following that, Tamil Nadu chief wildlife warden Shekhar Kumar Niraj had issued an order to hunt down T23 and a special team was later formed to track the tiger. The forest officials had taken a decision to track down the tiger by tranquilising and the department started silent operation in the forests where the tiger was believed to have hidden. Even as hundreds of cameras were fixed in machans to monitor the movements and find out the pug marks of the tiger, it did not fructify. Further, two Kumki elephants and a dog were pressed into operation. However, the wildcat continued to displace from one place to another place keeping the forest team on toes.

On October 13, on seeing the tiger in a bush near Bospara, the wildlife experts tried to tranquilise it, however, the tranquiliser scraped through it. Since it was already dusk, the searching operation ended. The very next day, the officials extracted footage from the automatic camera from the surroundings and it was confirmed that the wildcat moved from Bospara forest to Nambikunnu forests.

The steadfast forest teams on Thursday night found the tiger that walked along the Masinagudi-Mudumalai road. In no time, the officials darted twice and the dart pierced into the tiger's body. However, the tiger escaped under dizzy conditions. Moreover, it also raised suspicion among the experts that the tiger would have hidden in the bushes.

Around 100 forest staff and officials along with two Kumki elephants, on Friday morning hit the ground running to hunt down the tiger and they found the wildcat was resting in a bush in Mayar forests near Masinagudi. The team also surrounded the bush and tranquilised the elusive tiger. Later, it was captured alive and it was taken to a cage.