With a Taste for Wild Boar, Young Tiger in Mulugu Goes the Obelix Way
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Hyderabad: A tiger that survived a 200-km trek from Chhattisgarh into Telangana as an adolescent cub, and is now believed to be around two-and-a-half years old, might well be on its way becoming the “Obelix” among tigers in the state, not because of its size, but its preference for wild boar to feed on.
“Our staff during their regular tracking of the tiger, keep coming across wild boar carcasses that the tiger has fed on,” Mulugu district forest officer Rahul Jadhav told Deccan Chronicle. Just like Obelix, the legendary character from the Asterix comic books who loves to eat wild boar, this tiger too, appears to have developed a preference for the same animal as its primary food source.
“There is a good prey base in the Mulugu and Mahabubabad forests and there are a lot of wild boar. In fact, for a young tiger which may or may not have learnt all the hunting skills from its mother as it appears to have left its place of birth in the Pamed wildlife sanctuary in Chhattisgarh, it has preferred to stick to hunting within the forest and not go after easy prey such as cattle in the periphery areas. In the last nine months, there were just two cattle kills by the tiger,” Jadhav said.
‘Obelix’ is reportedly moving towards the Eturnagaram wildlife sanctuary in Mulugu districts after wandering around recently near Palampet, home to the Ramappa temple, the famous Unesco world heritage site. “When we saw it, we traced its movements backward and found that it came from Pamed in Chhattisgarh. It crossed into Alubaka near Venkatapuram in Mulugu district, then wandered around Mangapet, Tadwai, Lingala, and then Kothaguda in Mahbubabad district and now it is on its way into Eturunagaram forests,” Jadhav said.
“Wandering like this, it has covered some 1,500 km in all so far,” he said, adding that it is still very young and will grow in size as it gets older.
Though it was uncertain if the tiger first noticed in Mulugu district in December 2024 and then went Bhadradri Kothagudem district and later returned to Mulugu would stay put on continue its wanderings, it now appears that it has settled down in the district with occasional forays in Mahabubabad district. For now, this tiger in Mulugu district forests is the only one of its kind, and in a year or so, ‘Obelix’ which prefers wild boar than anything else, at least for now, may strike out into a wider walkabout as it reaches sexual maturity and begins searching for a mate.
