The people of the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu had been living in an imminent threat for the past few days as a tiger, which was at large, has been hunting down humans and cattle and had largely disrupted the normal lives. The big cat has been escaping the sight of wildlife brass and the hunters and they have been camped around the animal's vicinity to take it under custody. However, it was winning through its tricks of evading the eyes of officials. 

When the tiger, called 'T23', killed three humans in a short span of time, it had drawn major attention and brought to the light on how the local residents are being troubled by the wandering of the big cat. The Tamil Nadu wildlife officials have been surveilling the tiger's movements and the officials had also called the assistance from their Kerala counterparts and they even had done surveillance through drones. However, they had missed the tiger in every attempt, which had finally come to the development where the top wildlife official had ordered the ground teams to kill the tiger. 

The order has come on Friday after the tiger had killed the fourth human in Singara in Gudalur. According to reports, Tamil Nadu Chief Wildlife Warden Shekar Kumar Niraj has issued orders to the ground teams to hunt the tiger. It was after the state was reported with the fourth human kill with the locals expressing their fear over the wandering of the predator on the fields. It has been reported that the National Tiger Conservation Authority has been briefed about the situation on the ground and how the tiger has become a threat to human safety. 

The reports say that the state's Chief Wildlife Warden has powers to issue orders for hunting of wild animals, under section 11(1)(a) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, if he is satisfied that any wild animal specified in Schedule I has become dangerous to human life or is so disabled or deceased as to be beyond recovery, provided that no wild animal shall be ordered to be killed unless the Chief Wildlife Warden is satisfied that such animal cannot be captured, tranquilized, or translocated. This tiger had killed four people and several cattle and posed a threat to the locals.

As the week-long operation to cage the tiger didn't attain any developments and as it has been killing the people, the order was passed to hunt it down. Several factors were behind the setback of the operation including hard terrain and tough climate. Speaking to a news agency, the wildlife officials had said that they had taken a shot at it once, but the tiger had managed to escape. The behaviour of the tiger has changed and it has become very aggressive due to the ongoing operation and human presence. 

The tiger was wandering around a tea estate and the locals were advised not to exit their residences. Some of the locals who were working out of the town had decided not to report to the duty until the predator is caught. Initially, the wildlife officials had planned to cage the tiger and lock it up in Vandalur Zoo. However, as it was becoming invincible, the plan was dropped and it was then ordered to hunt it down before it could go on to kill any other person.