JOIN USFear continued to grip the villages adjoining Macche on the outskirts of Belagavi on Tuesday with the tiger still on the loose, after it escaped from the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) campus on Monday night.
Failing to capture the tiger before dusk on Monday, the Forest department personnel had tried to fix its position inside the campus which turned futile.
The tiger which roamed freely in the open and later jumped over the compound at around 10.30 pm and disappeared under the cover of darkness. The officials tried to trace the animal but later gave up because of poor visibility, and returned in the morning.
Officials including Honourary Wild Life Warden of Belagavi Sachin Patil and Deputy Conservator of Forest Ambadi Madhav inspected the pug marks while the expert team comprising Dr Prayag H S and Dr Sanath collected the fur samples stuck in the wire fence on the compound. The team then tried to trace the direction in which the animal went, inspecting the identified fields in the surroundings.
They also visited the stream located on the road connecting the VTU campus and Santibastwad village wherein they again found the pug-marks. The officials concluded that the tiger via Santibastwad had moved towards the forests and are awaiting fresh attack incidents to trace its location.
The police, as a precautionary measure, had made announcements and appealed to the residents of Santibastwad and other villages to not venture out during night hours and stay indoors keeping their houses locked on Monday night.