Partially eaten body of youth killed by tiger found in Kumaram Bheem-Asifabad forest

Hyderabad: The discovery of a partially eaten body of Sidam Vignesh, a 22-year-old young man, in the forest near Digda village of Dahegaon mandal in Kumaram Bheem-Asifabad district of Telangana on Wednesday, raised fears of predatory tiger in the forest area.

According to a Telangana Forest Department official, if confirmed after a post-mortem exam of the man’s body that he was killed by a tiger, this would be the first such instance in about 15 years that a human being killed by a tiger in Telangana, and in united Andhra Pradesh before Telangana was formed.

Principal chief conservator of forests R. Shobha said it was suspected that a tiger may have killed the man based on preliminary enquiries with the villagers, who reported hearing some growls and roars when they went to retrieve the body. By the time forest department officials and staff reached the spot, it was late evening and with darkness falling, a thorough search of the area is expected to begin as soon it is daylight on Thursday.

Fifteen animal trackers from the department have been rushed to the village even as some trap cages have been sent to be placed with baits to lure the tiger, or any other wild animal that may have killed the young man. “Our officials and staff will search the area for pug marks, tracks and coupled with information from the post-mortem exam, we will have more certain information on how the young man died,” Shobha said.

According to officials, the deceased, Vignesh, had gone into the forest with two other young men from the village for fishing in the village tank, part of which falls into the reserve forest area next to Digda village.

After catching some fish, as per information collected by forest department officials who rushed to the scene after they received information about Vignesh’s death from the local ML Koneru Konappa, the trio planned to fashion a basket from leaves and Vignesh volunteered to collect the required leaves for the purpose.

“From the information provided by his companions, we know that Vignesh went some distance away from the other two. After they waited for about half an hour, they called for him but not getting a reply, went in his search. When they found his body, they got scared and ran back to the village and informed the others,” an official said.

When a group of about 30 villagers returned to the spot where Vignesh’s body was lying, they reported that they heard some growls and roars of a tiger following which they all ran back to the village and returned, this time, with more people — nearly a 100 of them — and beating drums to make noise to scare the animal away. The villagers stayed with the body till forest department and police department officials reached the spot. While the local Forest Range Officer of Rebbana, Purnima, along with a sub-inspector of police reached the spot around 4 pm, other forest department and senior police officials reached the remote location later in the evening.

A team of medical doctors reached Digda village late in the night, around 9 pm, for conducting a post-mortem on Vignesh’s body in the presence of police officials as required by law.