A farmer, who was grazing cattle on the forest periphery at Hadanuru village bordering Bandipur Tiger Reserve, was injured on Thursday in what is alleged to be an animal attack and this resulted in tension in the village.
The local community manhandled the Forest Department staff who went there upon learning of the incident. They were assaulted and abused following which a complaint was lodged at Saraguru police station.
The farmer, identified as Prasanna, was grazing the cattle ignoring the Forest Department’s plea to the local people not to venture close to the jungles as combing operation was on to trap and tranquillise the tiger which had killed Puttaswamy Gowda on Sunday.
But officials said Prasanna ignored the warnings and took his herd close to the forests while a few were already grazing inside. ‘’Though the local people say that Prasanna was injured by an animal, there are no tell-tale signs of any animal attack and it is suspected to be mild injuries caused after he tripped while running,” according to Ramesh Kumar, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
Prasanna was taken to a local Primary Health Centre and shifted elsewhere for further treatment of his injury, which, the authorities said, was not serious. When the officials were interacting with the villagers and allaying their concerns, a few of them roughed up the Forest Department staff and abused them.
Meanwhile, the combing operation was affected due to heavy rains in and around Hediyala. Mr. Ramesh Kumar said three cages had been placed to trap the tiger while 30 pairs of camera traps had been installed to capture the images of any tiger lurking in the area. This would help identify if any of the tigers was emaciated due to old age or was injured in a territorial fight resulting in the animal attacking and killing a human.
