COIMBATORE: Officials from the Forest Department have stated that they are monitoring the movement of a subadult tiger at Eelada village near Kotagiri in the Nilgiris district, on Saturday.
Though the picture of the tiger, which is suspected to be 1.5 years old, captured by the locals went viral on social media, the forest department placed five cameras to monitor the big cat's movement only on Saturday, said sources.
Kotagiri Forest Range Officer R Selvakumar said that they have instructed the locals to avoid walking along near tea plantations to prevent untoward incidents. "We have asked them to inform to the forest department if they spot a tiger," he said.
However animal lovers expressed happiness over the movement of the animal. Speaking to TNIE, Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust founder, N Sadiq Ali, said, "It is a happy and healthy sign. The public in the area should not panic since the animal has so far not attacked any cattle near the Eelada village."
Sources also said that a cow-calf was killed by a leopard in the same village, about half a km from where the subadult tiger was spotted. Another one was spotted lying on a tree branch near Theppakkadu in MTR in the Nilgiris district.
Selvakumar said that they have lifted pug marks of the leopard and added that there is a good number of leopards there. However, Sadiq Ali said that the leopard lifted a calf only due to negligence of the cattle farmers as they failed to follow the forest department's instruction to keep them inside the shed.