Manipur: Tiger kills three cows in remote village of Tamenglong district

Post the attack, a team of forest officials, headed by DFO Tamenglong, were dispatched to the remote village for field survey on Friday.

Initially, pugmarks of the big cat were often spotted by the locals near the villages of Tarou, Rianglong and Konphung along the Barak River bank. On Tuesday, villagers found carcasses of three cows on the fringe of a forest near Kuilong Part 2 village.

Kharibam Hitler Singh, DFO Tamenglong district, said a preliminary examination concluded that the carnivore that attacked the cows is a tiger.

“Based on the size and shape of the pugmarks found, we drew a preliminary conclusion that it is a tiger. The pugmarks were 15/15 in cm which indicates that the animal is too big to be a leopard which is about 7.5/7.5 cm,” said Hitler Singh.

The attack has created panic among the villagers forcing them to remain indoors. Kuilong Part 2 village in Tamei sub-division is located in the Kuilong area bordering Nagaland’s Peren district. The village has around 37 households with jhum cultivation as the main occupation.

Allaying the fear of the villagers, DFO Tamenglong said that the probability of attack on humans are less likely.

The DFO also informed that the state forest department has apprised the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) of the incident.

There have been many instances of attacks on livestock suspected to be carried out by tigers. The last report of attacks on cattle took place in 2011 when, as many as seven cows were allegedly killed by a tiger at Tamenglong Khullen village. In 2005, villagers of Bhalok also killed a full-grown tiger. Subsequently, such incidents attracted the attention of the NTCA.

In 2019, the first ever tiger survey was conducted in Manipur particularly in the forest of Tamenglong and Senapati districts. However, it is learnt that the NTCA could not capture any footage of tigers.