Villagers In Karnataka Lock Forest Officials In Cage Over Tiger Issue

BENGALURU: Alleging that forest officials were doing enough to trap a tiger which often stays into their Bommalapura village on the periphery of Bandipur tiger reserve buffer zone, residents on Tuesday forcibly locked 13 personnel in a cage for about 20 minutes The locals freed the personnel only after receiving an assurance from senior forest officials that they would initiate adequate steps to trap the tiger.

Bommalapura is located 8 km from forest border in Gundlupet taluk of Chamarajanagar district. A Bandipur forest personnel told Deccan Chronicle the forest personnel went to Bommalapura to track the tiger.

“We have used a drone to track the tiger movement, besides, combing operations were also done but the tiger remained elusive. Cameras installed captured the images of the tiger straying into the village but it could not be trapped,’ said the personnel. Recently, a tiger had killed a cattle at the village and villagers expressed displeasure over forest officials.

On Tuesday, forest officials engaged tamed elephants to comb the village for about an-hour but did not come across the tiger. Villagers have been booked by the police over their step to cage forest personnel, use of abusive words and deflated the forest department vehicle.