Tiger In Karimnagar Elusive, No Plans To Capture It
Even as the search is on for the tiger, the official said the district administration has been informed and people living in the area have been alerted to be careful when going out.
Hyderabad: A tiger whose pugmarks were found near Vedurugattu village in Karimnagar district on Tuesday, continued to elude all efforts by forest department officials to track it. On Wednesday, officials said a fresh set of pugmarks were found in the same area and were ascertaining whether they belonged to the same tiger or were older pugmarks of another tiger.
Though a team of two wildlife experts from the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, veterinarian Dr Ravikant Khobragade and wildlife biologist Rakesh Ahuja, was rushed to Telangana to assess whether the tiger needed to be tranquilised and captured, the option was later dropped as the animal was behaving just like a tiger searching for a territory, exploring new areas.
“There has been no direct sighting of the tiger for the past two days. It appears that it is moving around only at night. There are a few hillocks in the area with some scrub growth and it could be taking shelter there during the day,” a forest department official said.
Even as the search is on for the tiger, the official said the district administration has been informed and people living in the area have been alerted to be careful when going out.
With the tiger believed to be searching for an area to settle down and establish a territory and as it appears to be on the move, forest officials in the six districts surrounding Karimnagar — Peddapalli, JS Bhupalpally, Warangal Urban, Siddipet, Rajanna Siricilla, and Jagtial — have also been alerted to keep a watch for the tiger in case it makes its way to any other district.
“We discussed the development so far with the team from Tadoba and it was their opinion that monitoring its movements should be the top priority along with alerting people in the areas that it might go to so both people and the tiger stay safe. We are also using drones equipped with cameras to try and locate it so it can be tracked more effectively,” chief conservator of forests N. Kshitija said.
