Tiger at 5km From Yadagirigutta
Forest department officials said on Sunday that the presence of a tiger was reported by a farmer who noticed some pugmarks in his field near Ibrahimpur of M. Turkapalle mandal in the district.
Hyderabad: A young male tiger, that kept forest department officials on their toes as it moved from district to district over the past couple of months, has reappeared in Yadadri-Bhongir district. On Saturday night, it killed two calves, and made away with the smaller of the two carcasses at a village located five km from the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Yadagirigutta.
Forest department officials said on Sunday that the presence of a tiger was reported by a farmer who noticed some pugmarks in his field near Ibrahimpur of M. Turkapalle mandal in the district. “Before he contacted us, he wanted to be sure, went online, searched for what a tiger pugmark looks like and informed us. Today morning, we received reports of two calves being killed and we found tiger pugmarks at the location,” Yadadri-Bhongir district forest officer D. Sudhakar Reddy said on Sunday.
"This the first ever instance of a tiger in Yadadri-Bhongir district. It is most likely searching for territory, and possibly a mate, neither of which are there in the areas it has been moving around for the past several weeks,” a senior wildlife official said. This also marks the confirmed presence of a tiger in the 16th district so far in the state.
“So far, it appears to be moving only at night and has kept away from large habitations. The real worry is what if it strays into a town or a city, but we hope that it will return the way it came and back to the forests in Mancherial or Asifabad,” the official added.
The famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Yadagirigutta is just about 5 km from Ibrahimpur, close to which a small patch of forest land exists. “It took the smaller of the calves it killed and left the larger one weighing about 40 kilos. The one it took may be around 25 kg and should last the tiger for at least three days,” Sudhakar Reddy said.
He said the district administration, the police, and electricity department officials were alerted on the tiger’s presence and villages around Ibrahimpur have been alerted with people being told to be very careful and not move around after dusk.
The tiger, believed to have crossed into Telangana from Maharashtra, has travelled through KB Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Jagtial, Rajanna-Siricilla, Kamareddy, Siddipet, Karimnagar, Peddapalli, and has now found itself in Yadadri-Bhongir district.