Chennai, Jun 8 (IANS): Tamil Nadu and Karnataka forest officials have launched joint combing operations to capture a tiger that has killed three cows in broad daylight at Talavady in Erode district in three separate incidents in the past two weeks.

Forest officials in Tamil Nadu told IANS that farms were situated one km from the Karnataka reserve forest area and 6 km from the Tamil Nadu forest reserve area in Talavadi.

A forest department official told IANS that the farmers are scared due to the presence of the tiger.

Officials from the Talavadi Forest Range office in Hasanur division under the Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) placed cameras to monitor the movement of the big cat.

The officials said that the pug marks have confirmed that the animal that killed the three cows was a tiger and that bushes in the barren land had turned out to be a safe haven for the tiger.

The forest officials directed the farmers to clear the bushes on their land to prevent the tiger from using them as its hideout. The farmers of Talavadi have also been asked not to venture out near the forest area for grazing their cattle.

Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve authorities said that compensation for the three cows was given to the farmers.