Thiruvananthapuram, 03 June(HS): It has all the ingredients to make an action-packed, suspense filled movie full of twists and turns. A tiger, said to be a man-eater, allegedly killed and mauled Gafoor Ali, a rubber tapper, when he went to the plantation in Karuvarakundu in Malappuram district for his work in April. Ali’s half-eaten body was recovered by colleagues and they told the police as well as forest officials about the tiger on the prowl. The cameras installed by environmentalists and wildlife conservationists clicked the photographs of the alleged man-eater, But the cameras installed by the forest officials failed to get at least a picture of the “villain”.

Karuvarakundu is in the periphery of the Western Ghats and it is normal for the wild animals, especially the big cats and wild tuskers to trespass into the town in search of food and water. The Forest officials set up traps in areas frequented by the tiger and waited patiently for the alleged man-eater to walk into the trap.

During the intervening night of May 30-31, the watchers and guards of the forest department who were on duty heard a noise and they complimented each other over the success of the mission. But when it was morning, they were in for a shock because the animal that was trapped turned out to be a young leopard. The leopard had managed to eat three-fourths of the bait, a goat which was kept in the trap.

When the foresters decided to release the leopard into the wild terrains of Western Ghats, the local population objected and they demanded the animal should not be released into the forests or plantations. The officials somehow brought peace to the locals and assured them that the tiger would be trapped soon.

On Sunday night, the trap set up in Batheri came alive and there was a cacophony created by foxes, jackals and dogs. The foresters who were optimistic about trapping the tiger were taken aback by what they saw next morning. Instead of the tiger, what fell into the trap was a dog owned by a farmer in the area. The howling and barking of the wild animals and their urban counterparts upset the dog who had managed to kill th bait, a goat.

The tiger remained elusive even as the wildlife officials launched their third mission to tame the wild cat.

Hindusthan Samachar / Manohar Yadavatti