Trap Cages Set, NTCA Frowns at Move

Hyderabad:The free running days of the tiger that wandered into the Yadadri-Bhongir district after undertaking a long solitary journey or more than 450 km all the way from the forests of Tadoba in Maharashtra district, may be coming to an end. With the tiger staying put in the district for the past 11 days and at least for now not showing any signs of moving away, forest department officials have placed trap cages near Dattaipally village, where the tiger last killed a cow two days ago.

This was done more to instill confidence among the local people than any intention to catch the tiger,” a forest department official said.

However, a senior official of the National Tiger Conservation Authority told Deccan Chronicle that the protocol for tigers exploring any landscape in search of a territory does not mandate setting up trap cages or catching it. The NTCA official said that the tiger is clearly exploring for a territory and found a route to go into an area where tigers were not reported from before.

“What is required is to monitor its movements, map where it is moving and where it might go next. This is a tiger that is not in conflict with people so trapping it is not recommended. And if it is killing cattle, that is because it is in a landscape without its traditional prey base of other wild animals like deer. The only thing that should be done is to monitor it, track it, and keep an eye on where it is going until its finds a territory where it can settle down. Any precipitate action unless it becomes a conflict animal is not allowed just because a tiger is now in an area where there were no tigers before,” the NTCA official said.

While there appears to be some confusion among forest officials on the purpose of placing a trap cage in the vicinity of the tiger’s movement, one of them said that if the tiger does get caught, then it will be relocated to the Kawal Tiger Reserve through which it had passed through on its long journey to Yadadri-Bhongir district. “A radio collar can be placed on it and this will provide valuable information on its movements and interactions,” the official said.

The tiger, sometime during the night on Tuesday, fed on the cow it killed near Dattaipally village bringing some relief to the forest staff in Yadadri-Bhongir district who hope that it will not make another kill immediately. “It appears to be taking shelter in the scrub forest like area near the village which also has several rocky outcrops, and a close watch is being kept on its movements,” the official said.

These plans include using a thermal drone later in the night on Wednesday to try and locate the whereabouts, and the movements of the tiger.

According to Dr Bilal Habib, a senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India and a specialist in carnivore research, the repeated cattle kills so far indicate unwarranted disturbance to the tiger, which was disturbed by people before it could feed. Making a kill and leaving it is not normal behaviour for tigers, he said, adding that the site where the tiger killed the cattle should not be disturbed.

Meanwhile, forest officials said that sarpanches of 15 villages surrounding the area where the tiger is now believed to be in have been alerted and people have been asked not to move about after sundown. The sarpanches have been asked to promptly report to the forest department or the police of any fresh cattle kills that will help forest officials to keep a track of the tiger’s movements if it moves into a fresh area.