AP to Rope in Experts from Pune, Tadoba to Capture Tiger
Rajahmundry Circle chief conservator of forests T Jyothi said, “We are making all out efforts to capture the tiger as our teams are continuously monitoring its movements.”
Vijayawada:The Andhra Pradesh forest authorities will be roping in wildlife experts from the NGO ‘RESQ’ from Pune and the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to help recapture the elusive tiger named ‘Explorer’ moving around in the Papikonda National Park.
In the last two days, the young male tiger aged around 3.5 years was once again sighed at Gopalapuram mandal. It killed a calf near Bolleru Cheruvu and another calf at Guddigudem.
The tiger originally from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve entered AP from Telangana on Jan 21 at Kavadigundla forest area in Eluru district and moved all round killing the livestock.
After hard efforts, the forest authorities with the help of experts from the NGO ‘RESQ’ captured the tiger by tranquilising it with the dart at Kurmapuram village of Rayavaram mandal in East Godavari district on Feb 6.
Subsequently, the foresters released the tiger back into the PNP on Feb 14 based on the recommendation from the National Tiger Conservation Authority as it was found to be young, healthy and having no track record of killing humans and also the PNP is having a substantial prey base of cattle, wild boars, gaurs and other animals.
After keeping lull for a few days, the tiger again started to move in the fringe villages of the forest area looking for prey and at times, it went on record killing 12 cattle on a single night.
East Godavari DFO (Wildlife) V Prabhakar Rao said, “The tiger’s behaviour has become smart as it is evading them based on the human scent. We arranged three teams in three directions to capture it recently but it chose the fourth direction and escaped. There are three teams including one from the NSTR making all out efforts to capture it.”
The forest authorities are keeping all the requisite equipment like thermal drones, camera traps, tranquilising darts, VHF antennas and cages and deploying several personnel to capture it but the major hurdle they are facing is that the carnivore camouflaging in the thick forest areas making them to look for the ‘ping’ as the satellite collar fixed to it, to locate its presence.
As the tiger is also preferring to stay in the forest area and on hilltops, the foresters are finding it difficult to locate it in a plain area so that they can release tranquilising darts and shift it into the cage immediately and proceed to the animal rescue centre nearby.
Rajahmundry Circle chief conservator of forests T Jyothi said, “We are making all out efforts to capture the tiger as our teams are continuously monitoring its movements.”
