Hyderabad: People in Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district continue to stay in fear after a tiger reportedly attacked cattle in Ibrahimpur village three days ago in Turkapally mandal on January 17.
Forest officials were alarmed by the tiger’s presence in the district, as there was no prior history of tiger habitation in the area.
On January 18, forest officials were alerted after the tiger’s pugmarks were discovered in a field. The following day, farmers in Ibrahimpur village filed a complaint alleging that the big cat attacked two calves, dragging one into the forest.
Since the cattle attack, forest officials have maintained that there was no tiger movement in and around the human habitation. However, they now suspect that it might have gone deeper into the forest or moved away to another location.
As of now, the forest officials have set up camera traps in multiple blocks of the forest to track the tiger’s movement.
The officials believe the tiger has crossed over from the Tadoba Andhari Forest Reserve in the neighbouring Maharashtra into Telangana.
It is presumed that the tiger travelled from Tadoba to Kawal Tiger Reserve, then Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Siddipet, and reached Yadadri Bhuvanigiri.
The wild animal is believed to have moved out of the Tadoba Andhari Forest Reserve due to an increase in tiger population and in search of its territory.
The tiger moved into the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri forest a week ago and roamed around the forest and agricultural fields, officials said.
However, it will most likely not stay in the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district for long, as the forest is not suitable for tigers to make it their home.
“It is a young adult aged around 10 years moving in search of a female tiger for mating or in search of a forest patch to carve out its own territory,” an official said.
Forest officials are waiting for the tiger to move and be captured in the camera traps.
“At this stage the presence of tiger cannot be confirmed. Some information has to be about its sighting elsewhere or a cattle attack. It is already three days, and the calf that the tiger hunted on Monday will not serve as a meal for long,” said the official.
The residents of the district were asked to be on a constant alert and immediately report to the forest department if a tiger or cattle killing was spotted.
