Wayanad: Less than a week after the capture of the man-eater tiger of Moodakolly, Vakery, the Forest Department has set a cage trap to catch another problem tiger at CC Junction near Vakery.

The animal killed and devoured a calf from the stable of farmer Njarakkal Surendran on Sunday night, villagers said. Cameras were installed at the stable on the same day. After the officials identified the animal from the CCTV footage, a cage was set up near the spot of the killing. The animal had visited the stable at night to devour the remaining carcass.  

The man-eater of Moodakolly was trapped in a cage by the forest department on December 19. The animal had killed Prajeesh, a 36-year-old dairy farmer, on December 9.
Residents of CC Junction are spending sleepless nights after the CCTV footage of the animal went viral on social media and messaging platforms. 

Surendran, whose calf the tiger killed, said he saw the half-eaten body of the calf in the morning. "When I saw my cow at my neighbour's house premises, I thought it had escaped the stable at night. When I went to get a rope, I saw the carcass," he said.

"Though there were reports of cattle lifting from interior villages, we were much relieved as our house is close to the busy Sulthan Bathery-Mananthavadi highway," he said. "Now the whole family is spending sleepless nights." 

South Wayanad Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Shajna Karim told Onmanorama that the animal had been identified and all steps were in place to trap it. "As the animal is yet to prove a threat to human beings, as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines, the forest department is not in a position to reveal its identity as they had done in the case of the man-eater (WWL-45) of Koodallur," she said.

"On the first day, we set the camera traps. After identifying the animal, we set up a cage trap with the prey animal in an appropriate spot," she said. “A surveillance team has been posted in the area to monitor the movement of the animal," she added.