Kerala High Court dismisses petition challenging order to shoot man-eating tiger, imposes Rs 25,000 costs

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the order issued by top Kerala Forests Department officials directing appropriate steps to be taken to shoot the tiger that had attacked and partially eaten a farmer in the state's Wayanad.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner.

"Considering the order which, in our opinion, is a well-reasoned order, we feel that this public interest litigation has been filed only with motives known to the petitioner. And we dismiss this petition with cost of Rs. 25,000. The amount shall be deposited with the Legal Aid within a period of two weeks from today," it said.

The Forest order came soon after protests erupted from Wayanad where the partially-eaten body of 36-year-old farmer Prajeesh was found about 500 metres from a forest area on December 9.

Prajeesh had gone to cut grass and when he did not return for long, his brother who went looking for him was aghast seeing his brother’s half-eaten body. The locals soon got around and started a protest as they were demanding immediate action against the tiger which badly mauled Prajeesh.

With locals up in arms and the Forest officials got into the act to catch the tiger and issued an order which held that if the animal cannot be captured or tranquilised, and it is established as a man-eater, then it should be killed, as it has become dangerous to human life in the region.

It was against this order the Animal and Nature Ethics Community (ANEC) moved the court. The court found out that the order was issued after going through various reports and hence dismissed it and imposed costs.