Overview
- Forest teams have launched two active operations: a newly started Vimalagiri effort with 25 camera traps and two trap cages, and a longer O‑Valley hunt that has checked 170 camera traps and placed 13 camouflaged cages.
- Officials say the Vimalagiri animal that has killed cattle and been seen near homes and a primary school is not the same tiger blamed for two recent fatalities in O‑Valley, and both captures were authorised by the Chief Wildlife Warden.
- Field units deployed include the Rapid Response Team, Forest Elite Force and Forest Veterinary Officers, and veterinarians stand ready to tranquillise either animal if they can do so safely.
- Local safety measures ask residents to keep livestock in secure sheds and to avoid tea‑leaf picking and farm work, a disruption that has cost daily wages and prompted grocery distributions by political actors for affected families.
- Teams are expanding monitoring across Nilgiris, Naduvattam and Mudumalai because Vimalagiri’s fragmented forest and proximity to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve raise the chance the animals will move across wide areas.