Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 3: If certain locals people are to be believed, a tiger was sighted at Aikala Nelligudde near Kinnigoli on Monday July 2 morning. Ivan Saldanha from Nelligudde, who was walking to his areca nut plantation near his home on Monday morning at around 8.30 am, said he was confronted by a tiger on his path. Ivan started shouting for help at which he said the tiger took to its heels, jumped into the compound of Francis Rebello in the neigbourhood before speeding away into nearby hillocks.

After Ivan conveyed information, forest department officials and Mulky police, range forest officer, K C Mathew and Mulky police visited the spot and undertook scrutiny. The forest officials searched for paw marks left behind the feline animal but could not properly see the marks as there is standing grass in the plantation.

In the recent past, leopards had been seen by people many a time in this area but there have not been any recent circumstances in which tigers were seen in public habitats. K C Mathew guessed that the animal seen by the locals could have been a leopard as tigers have not been seen in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district since long.