Gudalur: An unidentified tiger suspected of killing two farmers at Lauriston in O’ Valley Town Panchayat is roaming the vast stretches of forest in Gudalur and the adjoining Udhagamandalam Forest Division in the Nilgiris, leaving the Forest Department on a round-the-clock mission to trace and capture the animal.

With public anger simmering following the two killings, residents in the affected areas are living in fear and are reluctant to venture out even during the daytime.

According to Forest Department data, more than 80 people have been killed in human-wildlife conflicts in the Gudalur-Pandalur region over the past decade, including 77 in elephant attacks, two in leopard attacks and five in tiger attacks.

The latest series of tiger attacks began on August 8, when Balakrishnan, a farmer, was killed. On August 21, Ravichandran, another farmer from the area, was attacked while working on his farm near his home. In both cases, the victims were dragged into the forest and partially eaten. The Forest Department has yet to identify the individual tiger believed to be responsible, raising fears that the same animal may be behind both attacks.

In the wider Nilgiris forest landscape, comprising the Udhagamandalam Forest Division, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Gudalur Forest Division, 13 people have reportedly been killed in tiger or leopard attacks since 2016. The individual big cat was identified in eight cases, while its identity remained unresolved in five.

Following the second killing, an all-party action committee observed a two-day hartal on August 27 and 28, with protesters blocking major roads connecting Ooty with Kerala and Karnataka during the busy post-Onam tourism season.

On August 22, the Tamil Nadu Chief Wildlife Warden issued an order directing the Forest Department to capture the problem animal using cage traps or tranquillising shots. More than a dozen specialised teams have since been deployed.

Gudalur Divisional Forest Officer P Devaraj told Onmanorama that difficult terrain, continuous rain and dense vegetation were hampering the operation. “We have kept around 13 cage traps and installed 145 camera traps across the region to trace the movement of the animal. A well-equipped team is also working in the field,” he said. "However, there has been no confirmed evidence of the tiger’s movement during the preceding week," he added.

The region has experienced continuous rain in recent weeks, making operations in the difficult terrain even more challenging. The possibility of the tiger involved in the Gudalur attacks moving towards adjoining forest divisions has added to the Forest Department’s challenge.

Two kumki elephants from the Theppakadu elephant camp and experts with modern drone cameras have also been deployed to assist the search in the interior forest areas. Two veterinary teams equipped to tranquilise the animal are camping in Gudalur, according to officials.

Villages fall silent, farms abandoned
With farmers and agricultural workers advised to stay away from isolated fields, the agrarian sector has emerged as one of the worst affected by the attacks.

The second killing, in broad daylight just a few metres from the victim’s home, sent shock waves through O’ Valley.

According to K Sahadevan, vice-chairman of O’ Valley Village Panchayat, only people who have to work outside the village are venturing out, while many farmers and agricultural workers are staying indoors.

“Most of us are scared because Ravikumar was killed and dragged away from near his home,” he said. Construction workers and shop employees working outside the village are also returning home before evening, he added.

The Forest Department has arranged vehicles for students travelling to schools, but the situation remains difficult for others, Sahadevan said. “If the situation continues for a few more weeks, plantations such as Manjusree and the farmlands of small and medium farmers could become overgrown with weeds,” he said.

The period is particularly important for farm maintenance because of the rains, while tea growers are among the worst affected as the harvesting of green leaves has been severely disrupted.

Agrarian sector across Gudalur-Pandalur hit
The crisis is not confined to O’ Valley alone. The plantation sector across Gudalur and Pandalur taluks has also been affected, with farm workers reluctant to enter isolated plantations and increasingly insisting on working in groups.

Human-wildlife conflict has become a recurring problem across the 21 revenue villages in the region. “If a farm normally needs one person to harvest tea leaves, the farmer now has to pay two or more workers because they are unwilling to work alone. This is causing a heavy financial burden,” said Shaji Chelivayal, state president of the Federation of Small Tea Growers Association (FESTA).

“If a person is killed in a wildlife attack, there should be a mechanism to capture the problem animal and ensure the safety of people,” he said, criticising what he described as lengthy procedures under National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines.

He argued that the conservation framework should be reviewed to ensure adequate consideration for human safety while protecting wildlife.

Following the two-day hartal, political parties, plantation trade unions, farmers’ organisations and traders’ associations have jointly warned the State Government of further agitation if the problem is not resolved.