KOZHIKODE: Big cats on prowl in human habitats are giving sleepless nights for the forest department personnel. Alienated in the jungle and incapacitated either due to age or due to clashes with other animals, the animals resort to attacking cattle.
“The forest department had caged one tiger from Thelampatta near Sulthan Bathery. Many more are on the prowl,” says K.V. Narayanan, a farmer at Naikkatti, near Sulthan Bathery. “These animals enter human habitats only when they are unable to hunt in the jungle due to physical handicaps”, he said. “The issue came to limelight when many domestic animals were attacked”, he added.
At Gudalayikunnu near Kalpetta people live in fear as a leopard with three cubs were found in a plantation in the area. The visuals of the leopard were recorded in the camera set up by the forest department in the region.
At Pulppalli, the farmers living on the banks of River Kabani face threat from leopards and tigers living in the Karnataka forests which swim across the river during night hours and attack domestic animals.
Some of them camp in the region for many days giving sleepless nights for the agrarian community. It takes days for the forest department and local people to chase away the animals back to jungles in Karnataka.
Forest officials as well as farmers of the region are spending sleepless nights on the banks of the river to alert the farmers on the night raiders from the jungles of neighboring state.
