NEW DELHI: Two trained elephants have joined a 80-member team comprising veterinary doctors, forest officials and shooters searching for an elusive tiger identified as a man-eater in southern India's Kerala state, reported German news agency (dpa).
The two trained elephants are expected to signal if the tiger is hiding in tall grass or bushes during the search which has now been going on for almost a week, local forest officer Shajna Kareem said on Friday.
The search started after the half-eaten body of a 36-year-old farmer was found in a forest area of Wayanad on Dec 9. The man was most likely attacked by the tiger when he was collecting grass to feed his cattle.
India's more than 3,100 tigers make up more than 75 per cent of the world's tiger population. Many of them live in national parks called reserve forests adjacent to populated farm lands leading to animal-human conflicts. The Royal Bengal Tiger is an endangered species and India's national animal.
The chief wildlife warden in Kerala had given orders to shoot the tiger dead if it could not be tranquillised, under special provisions for tackling man-eaters.
Currently the 13-year-old male tiger, identified as WWL-45 in the forest department's database, was believed to be moving around the same area where the farmer was killed, the forest official said. - BERNAMA
