Tiger in Search of Territory May Be Retracing Its Steps Back in Siddipet District
We believe it is now in Siddipet district as its latest kill, that of a calf was found there, not very far from the district border, a forest department official said.
Hyderabad:After nearly 20 days of roaming around in Yadadri-Bhongir district, and not very far from the famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple on Yadagirigutta, a sub-adult male tiger apparently in search of a territory, is back in Siddipet district from where it moved into Yadadri district in the middle of January.
We believe it is now in Siddipet district as its latest kill, that of a calf was found there, not very far from the district border, a forest department official said. “The calf belonged to Yadadri, but the carcass was found in Siddipet district where the tiger dragged it before it fed on it,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the case of the wandering tiger reached the Chief Minister’s Office with the Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri Zilla Seva Samstha appearing to the Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to instruct forest officials to catch the tiger which had been killing cattle over the past three weeks in the district.
In its appeal, the organisation said the forest department was taking only nominal measures which did not stop the tiger from killing cattle and spreading fear among people in several villages in Turkapally mandal, and urged the Chief Minister to direct the forest department to catch the tiger, particularly as the entire area does not have any real forest areas.
The tiger, which is now moving around in more open areas, was briefly spotted by forest department staff of Yadadri district who were on a patrol on Sunday. “If it continues on its present direction, which appears as if it might be doing, then it could be retracing its way back along the route it came from. Though our staff searched all day in the small forest blocks along the district border, there were no signs of the tiger but we did notice that it completed feeding on the calf with very little of the carcass left,” a forest department official said.
It may be recalled that the tiger reached Yadadri-Bhongir around January 17 after travelling through Siddipet, Kamareddy, Rajanna-Siricilla, Karimnagar, Peddapalle, Jagitial, Nirmal, Mancherial and KB Asifabad districts in a journey that saw it walk, till now, more than some 500 km. There have been cases of sub-adult tigers going on such walkabouts for long periods in search of territories of their own with some doing so for seven months or so. This one too is searching for a place of its own and we hope it will do so soon,” a senior forest department official said.