A woman was killed in a tiger attack in the Hediyala range of Bandipur on Friday further escalating concerns over rise in conflicts in the villages abutting the forests.
The victim was identified as Ratnamma, aged 52, and the incident took place at Balluruhundi village in Nanjangud taluk of Mysuru district.
Forest department personnel citing local villagers said Ratnamma was working in her fields when the tiger attack took place and it dragged her towards the forests which abuts the village.
Senior officials on receiving the information rushed to the spot where the villagers ire was high. This is the second human death this month. Farmer Balaji Naik of Kaadabeguru was mauled and killed by a tiger in Moliyuru range on November 6 following which a combing operation was launched though the tiger has so far proved to be elusive.
In a different case but also in the Hediyala range, a farmer survived a tiger attack early this month and a combing operation was launched but to trae the tiger but to no avail.
Ever since the death of Balaji Naik, the Special Tiger Force and personnel drawn from the Leopard Task Force in Mysuru are camping near Moliyuru.
The standard practice is to launch a combing operation to trap and capture the tiger after ascertaining its identity from the camera trap images and two such operations are already under way. But with this incident, three combing operations would be on in different areas of Bandipur which will also spread the resources of Forest Department thin and wide.
Bandipur is home to 150 tigers as per the latest NTCA report and an additional 41 tigers make use of the territory from the adjoining landscape taking the number of tigers supported by the national park to 191. But it also has about 130 villages surrounding it as a result of which human-animal conflicts are high.
