Kalpatta: Kuzhuvila Harikumar, who first spotted the carcass of a tiger at Ambukuthi in Ambalavayal in the district, has died by suicide. 

Locals residents alleged that the Forest Department had called Harikumar to the Meppadi Range Office for questioning several times after he reported spotting the dead tiger. The pressure of attending the quizzing might have pushed him to the brink, the family members alleged.

Forest officers had threatened to implicate Harikumar in a case and he was under severe mental stress, his wife Usha said.

To protest against the officers' villagers picketed the highway.