Poachers Skill Tigress’ Carcass at Penchikalpet Range in Komaram Bheem Asifabad District
Forest officials took nearly 12 persons from nearby villages into custody and questioned them over the incident. They suspect that eight persons were involved in skinning the tiger.
Adilabad: A group of women of Agharguda who went into the forest to collect beedi leaves on May 14 were the first ones to see the carcass of an adult tigress in the Penchikalpet range in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. They rushed back and informed the village elders who called forest officials and alerted them.
Sources said the forest staff reached the area only the next day, on May 15.
In the meantime, suspected poachers went to the scene, skilled the carcass, removed its teeth and claws.
According to reliable sources, the tiger was electrocuted while it was moving on the outskirts of Yellur village in the Penchikalpet range. The poachers who noticed the tiger being electrocuted skinned it, removed the claws and teeth and disappeared from the scene.
A forest official said they could have seized the carcass of the tigress if they had reacted in time.
Sources said that there was no proper tracking of the tigress, later suspected to be eight-year-old Kadamba-8 or K8, which refers to the forest beat where she was born, though she was moving in the Penchikalpet area which has seen many poaching incidents in recent months. A local forest officer was given additional charge of the Kagaznagar area.
Forest officials on Sunday said they were trying to locate the tigress’ skin. They concluded that the local poacher was involved in the death of the tigress. They were also probing whether poachers have taken the skin to Maharashtra to sell it at a better price.
Forest officials took nearly 12 persons from nearby villages into custody and questioned them over the incident. They suspect that eight persons were involved in skinning the tiger.
A senior forest officer said, “They got some indications of the involvement of the local poachers during the inquiry of locals, and we are hopeful of tracing the skin.”
It is learnt that the people who were taken into custody were showing taking forest officials to different locations but there was no trace of the skin.