Hassan: A 65- year- old woman from a village bordering the Nagarhole National Park , who went missing after she went to graze her cattle inside its forests on May 20, is now suspected to have been mauled to death by a tiger.
The woman, Puttamma, from Kolavige village had gone to graze her cattle in the Chamalli forests, that are part of the park’s Veeranahosahalli range, but did not return. Although forest officials and villagers searched for her for three days they came up with nothing. And now it is believed she may have been attacked by a tiger near the river Lakshmana Theertha flowing through the range as a big cat appeared to have feasted on a cow grazing inside the Chamalli forest the same day.
While wild animals have killed a few villagers in the past, this time villagers are clueless about Puttamma’s fate as neither have her remains been discovered nor her clothing. Says one villager, Manjunath, “In the past we got clues of missing persons meeting tragic ends in the forests when we found their clothes. But we have recovered nothing belonging to Puttamma from the forest which is why her death is still a mystery.”
The woman’s son-in-law, Swamy, who claims that she was familiar with the forest routes , is also baffled by her disappearance. Puttamma lived with him and her daughter in the village.
Meanwhile, conservationists continue to blame forest officials for such incidents, accusing them of turning a blind eye to illegal grazing inside national parks.
