Speeding Car Mows Down Tiger Near Mysuru Airport

Bengaluru: A tiger aged about one-and-half year was killed reportedly in a road accident after the big cat crossing the National Highway-766 was knocked down and ran over by a speeding car on Sunday night at around 11 pm near Mysuru airport about 12-km from heart of Mysuru city. The National Highway-766 links Mysuru with Ooty in Tamil Nadu via Gundlupet of Chamarajnagar.

The car driver (KA51 D1607) heading towards Nanjangudu town fled from the spot after the tiger was knocked down and search is on to trace the absconding driver while forest officials have seized the car which knocked down the tiger, besides a case has been registered against him.

The carcass of the tiger killed in the road accident was traced in a bush after passersby informed the forest officials over the tiger killed in a road accident. By the time, the forest officials reached the accident spot, the tiger had succumbed to its injuries, said Mysuru Territorial Deputy Conservator of Forests Dr Basavaraj and confirmed that the tiger killed in the road accident belonged to a litter of four cubs which was often sighted with their mother near Nanjangudu a couple of months back.

Nanjangud taluk has two ranges-Hediyala and Omkar belonging to Bandipur National Park and often wild animals such as elephants, leopards, tigers among others stray outside the Park.

A couple of months back, the forest officials discovered pugmarks of tiger movements’ in the region and continuous combing operations did not help the forest officials to trace them, said Basavaraj speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Monday and stated that the tiger cubs were christened T6, T7, T8 and T9 and all the four cubs were last sighted with their mother in the first week of November last year.

Subsequently, the cubs began to disperse and the whereabouts of T6 and T8 were unknown while T7 and T9 were sighted near a factory near Kadakola of Mysuru taluk. Forest officials made efforts to capture them for translocation. Basavaraj said that the surrounding areas of Mysuru airport at Mandakalli has swathes of agricultural fields and unlikely habitat for tigers to survive and it is believed that tigers may have survived in the region preying on wild boars which are found in plenty in the region. Autopsy would be conducted on the tiger carcass.