WAYANAD: The police stopped the Wayanad DFO from talking to the media about the efforts to catch the man-eating tiger that attacked and mauled a woman to death at Pancharakolly. Mananthavady SHO Augustine stopped the DFO and Indian Forest Service officer Martin Lower. ‘No live, everything outside the gate’, the SHO told media. It is not clear why the police officer stopped the DFO. The police have also not given an explanation on it.

The DFO has informed that the area where the tiger is likely to be present has been marked. Before the police officer stopped him, the DFO said today's mission is to find the tiger. The forest department will inspect the marked place. Thermal cameras will also be used to find the tiger. An expert team has arrived from Kochi for this. He explained that even if the tiger is hidden in between the trees, it can be found using the thermal camera. Searches are also being conducted in the areas where the tiger was seen the other day.

In the past few days, locals had organized large-scale protests in Mananthavady over the delay in the mission to capture the tiger that attacked and mauled a woman to death in Pancharakolly. The locals had threatened that if the tiger was not captured, the officials would not be allowed to go out of the estate. The protest ended after the authorities accepted the demands raised by the locals. If the tiger is captured, it will not be released into the forest. It will be shifted to a zoo or a conservation center. If it is not captured, the authorities had assured that it will be captured after tranquilized or shot dead.

Meantime, a calf was attacked by a wild animal at Perumthatta in Wayanad. The calf was attacked last night. The presence of the tiger was found in Perumthatta earlier. The tiger has been seen in these areas many times. The forest department suspect it to be a leopard. The authorities are holding discussions to set up a cage in this area to capture the creature.