A tigress escaped from its cage at Neyyar wildlife sanctuary, about 30 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram city, triggering panic among the residents.
The nine-year-old tigress, which had earlier given sleepless nights to residents of Wayanad district by killing several domestic animals, was recently caught by forest officials and brought to Neyyar sanctuary.
By Saturday noon some forest officials found that the tigress escaped from the cage by breaking the mesh.
Though officials later spotted the tigress, it again disappeared before they could tranquilise it. Later the tigress was suspected to have escaped to the Neyyar dam.
The forest authorities sounded an alert among the people of the locality and the search was continuing. The chances of the tigress entering the adjacent forest areas were also not being ruled out.
The tigress was causing a threat at Cheeyambam near Pulpally in Wayanad for around two months as it killed many domestic animals. The forest officials captured it on October 25 after tranquilising. Thereafter it was shifted to Neyyar.
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