Thothamukkai near Kotagiri witnessed high drama on Tuesday with the forest department organising a major operation with the help of police, including Special Task Force (STF) personnel, to deal with a bear which had killed a woman and injured two men on Monday.
With tension prevailing in the area on account of the bear attack, forest staff with cages and tranquiliser guns and a large number of police personnel had been moved to Thottamukkai from various parts of the district.
On establishing the location of the animal, it was surrounded .However efforts to tranquilise the bear had gone in vain with the animal moving menacingly, even after being darted, towards the people who were trying to capture it.
Efforts to remove the bear for post-mortem were hampered with a large number of people resorting to a road blockade agitation.
They demanded that a spot post-mortem should be conducted and other bears in the area be captured. However they dispersed after officials held talks with them.
Nilgiris Collector P.Sankar who was present at Thothamukkai told The Hindu that the injured forest personnel had been shifted to Coimbatore. A cheque for Rs. 3 lakh as compensation had been handed over to the family of the deceased on Monday night.
