Siddipet Tiger Keeps Officials on Toes
Officials said there have been no cattle kills so far, and the tiger is likely to find prey in the 150-hectare forest block, which has deer and four percolation tanks.
Hyderabad: A young male tiger that made its way into Siddipet district of Telangana on Friday, on Saturday kept forest department officials and staff, a team comprising a total of 45 persons, on their toes as it kept moving around in a radius of around 4 km from the location where it was first reported near Thoguta village.
“It has been going around and returning to Thoguta area where there is a reserve forest block. There are also several small hillocks in the area with scrub jungle and we have been following the pugmarks,” a forest department official from the district said.
Residents of five villages have been advised to observe a self-imposed night curfew after tiger pugmarks were spotted, though officials said the animal has not harmed anyone so far. Incidentally, the area the tiger is reported to be moving in, is just about 20 km as the crow flies from former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s farmhouse in Erravalli village, and is around 10 km from Siddipet town.
Officials said there have been no cattle kills so far, and the tiger is likely to find prey in the 150-hectare forest block, which has deer and four percolation tanks. Newly elected sarpanches of the five villages have been alerted about the tiger and advised residents to stay indoors from dusk till dawn. With harvesting over, farm activity is minimal, and officials noted that the tiger even walked past a cattle shed without harming livestock.
Officials are using foot patrols, camera traps and drones to track the tiger, but it has not been sighted yet. They said the animal is keeping to itself and is under round-the-clock monitoring.
The tiger began its long trek from the forests in Maharashtra, and after passing through KB Asifabad, Mancherial, Jagitial, Rajanna Sircilla, and Kamareddy districts, entered Siddipet on Friday.