In this photo provided by the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, a tiger looks out of a cage at the "Tiger Temple" in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, May... (Associated Press) 
 
 BANGKOK (AP) — Wildlife officials in Thailand have begun removing some of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals. 
 
 The director of Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office, Teunjai Noochdumrong, said three tigers were tranquilized and transported Monday in an operation involving about 1,000 state personnel that is expected to continue for a week. 
 
 The animals will be taken to three government animal refuges elsewhere in Thailand. 
 
 The temple, a popular money-earning tourist attraction in the western province of Kanchanaburi, has been criticized by animal rights activists because of allegations it is not properly set up to care for the animals and flouted regulations restricting their trade. 
 
 The monks resisted previous efforts to take away the tigers, and impeded the effort again on Monday morning despite the massive show of force by the authorities. They relented after police obtained a court order. More than 300 officials remained at the temple overnight to ensure the tigers remained safe. 
 
 The temple recently made arrangements to operate as a zoo, but the plan fell through when the government determined that the operators failed to secure sufficient resources. 
 
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 This story has been corrected to show that the tigers will be taken to three animal refuges, not two. ||||| Story highlights Wildlife officials moved in after complaints from tourists and concerns for their welfare 
 
 The tigers are being moved to a compound in another province 
 
 Bangkok (CNN) Authorities armed with tranquilizer guns are still trying to capture dozens of tigers at a controversial Buddhist temple in Thailand after temple staff allegedly set some free to delay the process. 
 
 "Yesterday was mayhem," Wildlife Conservation Office (WCO) director Teunjai Noochdumrong told CNN Tuesday. 
 
 "When our vet team arrived, there were tigers roaming around everywhere," Noochdumrong said. "Looks like the temple intentionally let these tigers out, trying to obstruct our work." 
 
 The "Tiger Temple," in Kanchanaburi Province west of Bangkok, has long been popular with tourists , who could walk among the tigers and pose for photos. Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office (WCO) said the temple's 137 tigers posed a danger to visitors and that they were being mistreated. 
 
 A tourist poses for a photo with a tiger at the Thai temple in 2012. 
 
 However, when staff from the WCO arrived Monday morning to remove the tigers, temple officials refused to let them in. After a half-day stand off, wildlife officers finally entered and were able to sedate eight tigers. 
 
 Read More ||||| An appeal to prevent forest rangers from executing a tiger believed to have killed as many as 13 people has been rejected by India’s supreme court. 
 
 The court has said it would not step in if any attempts to sedate and relocate the animal were unsuccessful. 
 
 The spate of deaths over the last two years has caused panic in Pandharkawada, a town in central India, where bodies have reportedly been found missing limbs and covered in large scratch marks. 
 
 Officials say the female tiger has killed at least five people, while local reports put the number as high as 13. 
 
 But activists have questioned whether the tigress was behind all of the deaths as it is very rare for a single tiger to have attacked so many people. 
 
 Forest officials have said they would first try to tranquilise and capture the tigress, known as T1. 
 
 Last week the New York Times reported rangers were gearing up for a “military-style operation” to deploy rangers with tranquiliser guns on the backs of half a dozen elephants to surround the tiger, capture her and move her to a zoo. 
 
 “If this is unsuccessful, the animal will have to be shot in order to avoid further loss of human life,” forest official Pradip Rahurkar Rahurkar told the BBC Marathi service. 
 
 Local politicians are under pressure to have the tiger shot dead, particularly after three people were reportedly killed in August. 
 
 “I don’t want to kill this beautiful animal,” KM Abharna, a top forestry official in the Pandharkawada area, told the New York Times. “But there’s a hell of a lot of political pressure and a hell of a lot of public pressure.” 
 
 Officials said they will also try to tranquilise and relocate the tigress’s two cubs along with a male tiger called T2, which has also been spotted in the area but has not been blamed for any deaths. 
 
 India’s efforts to conserve its tigers have seen an increase in numbers of the animals – up from 1,411 in 2006 to an estimated 2,500 today, meaning India is now home to 60 per cent of the world’s tigers. 
 
 However, the country’s booming population and mushrooming towns and cities have seen forests shrink to become isolated islands, and when tigers attempt to move between them, they are increasingly coming into conflict with humans. 
 
 Thailand's Tiger Temple raid 10 show all Thailand's Tiger Temple raid 1/10 Thai officers carry a sedated tiger outside its cage at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple Getty Images 2/10 Wildlife officials sedate a tiger at the Tiger Temple AP 3/10 A tiger stands in a cage at a property in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province AP 4/10 Thai army display a tiger skin found inside Tiger Temple as officials continue moving live tigers from the controversial place REUTERS 5/10 A sedated tiger is stretchered as officials start moving tigers from Thailand's controversial Tiger Temple, a popular tourist destination which has come under fire in recent years over the welfare of its big cats REUTERS 6/10 Thai wildlife officials load a cage containing a tiger onto a truck after they removed it from an enclosure at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple AFP/Getty Images 7/10 Tiger cub carcasses were found in jars containing liquid as officials continue to investigate the Tiger Temple REUTERS 8/10 Thai officers observe the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs and a bear found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple Getty Images 9/10 A Thai wildlife official looks at a Malayan sun bear in a cage as found during a raid at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi Province EPA 10/10 An official looks at a stuffed bear as they continue moving live tigers from the controversial Tiger Temple REUTERS 1/10 Thai officers carry a sedated tiger outside its cage at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple Getty Images 2/10 Wildlife officials sedate a tiger at the Tiger Temple AP 3/10 A tiger stands in a cage at a property in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province AP 4/10 Thai army display a tiger skin found inside Tiger Temple as officials continue moving live tigers from the controversial place REUTERS 5/10 A sedated tiger is stretchered as officials start moving tigers from Thailand's controversial Tiger Temple, a popular tourist destination which has come under fire in recent years over the welfare of its big cats REUTERS 6/10 Thai wildlife officials load a cage containing a tiger onto a truck after they removed it from an enclosure at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple AFP/Getty Images 7/10 Tiger cub carcasses were found in jars containing liquid as officials continue to investigate the Tiger Temple REUTERS 8/10 Thai officers observe the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs and a bear found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple Getty Images 9/10 A Thai wildlife official looks at a Malayan sun bear in a cage as found during a raid at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi Province EPA 10/10 An official looks at a stuffed bear as they continue moving live tigers from the controversial Tiger Temple REUTERS 
 
 In addition, a crackdown on the beef industry by the Hindu government has left large numbers of abandoned cattle in some areas, meaning tigers often move out of forested reserves to attack the animals. 
 
 Officials have tried to capture T1 on four previous attempts, but each time she has escaped.
– Wildlife officials in Thailand have begun removing some of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals. The director of Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office, Teunjai Noochdumrong, says three tigers were tranquilized and transported Monday in an operation involving about 1,000 state personnel that's expected to continue for a week. The animals will be taken to three government animal refuges elsewhere in Thailand. The temple, a popular money-earning tourist attraction in the western province of Kanchanaburi, has been criticized by animal rights activists because of allegations it's not properly set up to care for the animals and flouted regulations, the AP reports The monks resisted previous efforts to take away the tigers, and they impeded the effort again on Monday morning despite the massive show of force by the authorities. It was "mayhem," Noochdumrong tells CNN. "When our vet team arrived, there were tigers roaming around everywhere," he says. "Looks like the temple intentionally let these tigers out, trying to obstruct our work." The monks relented after police obtained a court order. More than 300 officials remained at the temple overnight to ensure the tigers remained safe. (This tiger was found roaming a residential neighborhood in Texas.)