Karnataka forest department wrongly captures male tiger for mauling boy to death

The DNA report issued by The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad has confirmed that the Karnataka Forest Department has captured the wrong tiger at Mettikupe range in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve for mauling a boy to death.

The report, which was submitted to the forest department on Saturday, said that the seven-year-old boy was killed at Kallahatti village in H D Kote taluk of Mysuru on September 4 by a female tiger, while the forest officials have captured an eight-year-old male tiger.

The locals had informed the department officials that the tiger which had killed the boy was much smaller and the one captured on September 19 was bigger. Sources in the department informed DH that the female tiger might have killed the boy as she was pregnant and searching for easy prey.

The male tiger which was captured has lost two of its four canine teeth while being transported from Nagarahole to Shivamogga’s Tyavarekoppa Lion and Tiger Safari Zoo on September 21. As per the National Tiger Conservation Authority guidelines, a tiger which has lost either of its canine teeth or nails cannot be released back into the wild as there is a high possibility of them becoming a man-eater.

“The male tiger will spend the rest of its life in a zoo, whereas the female tiger that has killed the boy and tasted human blood is still on the prowl,” said a senior forest department official who did not wish to be named. Officials who issued orders to capture the tiger and shift it to Tyavarekoppa even before establishing if it was indeed the killer have to take the blame, he said.

Delayed report

Sources say that one of the reasons for the wrong capture of the tiger was that the forest department was under undue pressure from villagers, elected representatives and the media.

“We had to act. Residents of Kallahatti were baying for the tiger’s blood. We put in all our efforts to capture the right tiger. Had we received the DNA report at the earliest, we could have avoided this fiasco,” said an officer involved in the capture operation. He said that the one they had captured was a tiger in conflict as it had killed several cattle in the village.

The officials are continuing the exercise of tracing the female tiger.

Though the DNA samples of the two tigers were sent on September 5 and 20 respectively, the report of the same came on October 7.

Nagarhole Field Director C Harshakumar said the department wanted to capture both the tigers as they were in conflict. “The male tiger is also believed to have killed several cattle.”

“The male tiger had already lost its tooth before capture and lost another while shifting,” he said.

However, multiple forest guards and officials told DH that the canine teeth and nails of the tiger were intact at the time of capture.