Kodagu villagers in panic as tiger kills woman, boy in 24 hours

Kodagu: Panic grips T Shettigeri in Kodagu district as two persons – a 14-year-old boy and 60-year-old woman – were killed by a tiger in a span of 24 hours since Saturday. The forest department staff has launched a search for the beast to capture and tranquilize it.

The 60-year-old woman identified as Chenni, who worked at an estate, was mauled to death by the tiger when she went out of the house at 6:50 am on Sunday. Chenni was killed 20 meters away from her house situated in T Shettigeri. The tiger attacked Chenni on the neck, killing her on the spot. It fled the spot after Chenni's kin came running out of the house.

Earlier on Saturday, 14-year-old Aiyappa had fallen the first victim of the big cat at Kumturu village, just 10 km away from T Shettigeri. The consecutive tiger attacks have triggered terror among the villagers who protested against the forest department's alleged negligence in acting swiftly and capturing the tiger.

According to the reports, district and forest officials are investigating to find out if the same tiger was behind the two attacks. A team of forest officials, along with trained elephants, are currently carrying out a combing operation to capture the tiger. It is claimed that forest officials are on the ground both on foot and on elephants, trying to track down the beast as per standard operating procedures.

After the Saturday incident, the villagers of Kumturu demanded the visit of Virajpet DCF Chakrapani and immediate capture of the animal. However, the DCF failed to visit the incident spot on Saturday. However, with farmers' associations demanding the presence of DCF and Mysuru CCF and Kodagu in-charge CCF Heeralal visited the spot.