Chennai: After three weeks, Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials captured Tiger "T23" of Mudumalai Division alive on Friday and have decided to transport the animal to Mysore zoo. The 13-year-old tiger, which was separated from its group by young tigers, is reportedly a “man eater” and has killed several persons following which the forest department launched the operation.
According to a report on The News Minute, the forest officials tranquilized T-23 with three darts at Mayur forest in Masinagudi and finally captured the animal. The officials also took the tranquilized tiger to Mudumalai Theppakadu Elephant camp for treatment.
In the operation, one of the officials sustained injuries and was administered treatment.
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Around 22 days ago, the forest officials started the operation reportedly since the tiger killed a few persons in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, a report on Times of India said. On July 19, a resident of Muduguli village in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve was allegedly killed by the tiger. Another person was killed by the tiger while the big cat was roaming in a private Devan I estate on September 24. The tiger also killed a tribal man in Kurumbarpadi hamlet near Masinagudi on October 1.
The tiger was captured alive after Madras High Court recently ordered to not kill MDT23 since it may not be a man-eater and might have been misunderstood by the department. The first bench of Madras High Court, Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu, pronounced the verdict even as the government counsel P Muthukumar said that there are no plans to kill the animal.