16-05-2025
Tiger kills man inside rubber estate in Kerala's Malappuram
Kozhikode: Residents took out a protest march on Thursday morning after a tiger attacked and killed rubber tapper Gafoor Ali (43) at a rubber estate in Adakkakundu near Kalikavu in Malappuram.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
They blamed forest department for failing to act even after confirming the presence of a tiger in the area three months ago. Gafoor is survived by his wife, three children and his mother, who is recovering from a stroke.
The tiger attacked Ali, a native of Kallamoola in Chokkad panchayat, around 7.15am while he was tapping rubber inside an estate at Ravuthar Kunnu, around 3km away from the forest boundary under Karuvarakundu forest station limits.
Abdul Samad, a fellow rubber tapper who saw the attack, said the tiger jumped on Ali from behind, bit his neck and dragged him away.
"It happened all of a sudden. I saw a large tiger leap, bite his neck and drag him away. He let out a single cry and then there was silence," he said, adding that he shouted for help but there were no houses nearby.
Later he phoned others and people arrived at the spot. They followed the trail of blood and found the body around 200m away from the spot where the tiger had attacked Ali.
Forest officers said the tiger had eaten part of his body. The estate is owned by Edakkadamban Nazeer Hussain.
The incident led to widespread protests and angry people prevented anyone from shifting Ali's body. Wandoor MLA AP Anilkumar said he had alerted the divisional forest officer about tiger presence around three months ago and had also raised the issue in the assembly and informed forest minister AK Saseendran.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The protesters demanded an enhanced compensation, a permanent govt job for a family member and added that the tiger must be shot. They ended the protest after three hours when DFO Dhanik Lal gave an undertaking that apart from the compensation of Rs 10 lakh, SDMA would be urged to provide an additional sum of Rs 4 lakh.
Considering the family's hardship, the wife would get a temporary job immediately and a recommendation will be given to the govt to give her a permanent government job.
Gafoor was laid to rest at Kallamoola Juma Masjid burial ground.
A 25-member team from Wayanad and Palakkad were deployed to capture the tiger. Cages were deployed and kumki elephants will also be roped in for the operation. Saseendran said forest veterinarian Arun Zachariah will be a part of this team.
The minister said that tiger presence was reported in the area two months ago and forest department had undertaken a vigil then. He added that CCF (Northern Zone) Deepa KS was asked to submit a report on the incident.
