A farmer who was tending to cattle in Sargur taluk of Mysuru district, died in a tiger attack on Sunday.
The incident took place near Mulluru village and the victim was identified as Rajappa, 48. Perturbed by the developments the local villagers flayed the Forest Department officials from Hediyala range who visited the spot, and staged a demonstration. The Sarguru police has registered a case.
A senior official said the terrain is on the border of Mysuru Territorial Forests and Bandipur tiger reserve. There has been slew of such incidents involving tigers in the area in recent times and a farmer lost his vision due to a tiger attack during a combing operation in Badagalpura, also in Sarguru taluk, a few days ago.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) president Badagalpura Nagendra has blamed the Forest Department for the incident and said that it was their “irresponsibility” which has resulted in the death of a farmer. He said the Sunday’s incident in which the farmer has died, was hardly at a distance of 7 km to 8 km from the earlier incident a few days ago in which Mahadeva Gowda lost his eyesight in the tiger attack.
The increase in human-animal conflict in the region has been attributed to habitat disturbance and anthropogenic pressure in the area apart from proliferation of resorts and hotels around Bandipur, said Mr. Nagendra. He said the Forest Department should convene a meeting involving senior officials and the local villagers to thrash out a permanent solution to end human-animal conflict.
