Tiger Tales - New Entrants into State Exploring Telangana
Huge chunks of forest land which were previously under encroachment have been cleared of people resulting in tigers likely feeling safer about moving into and through such areas.
Hyderabad: Tigers from Maharashtra appear to be exploring newer areas in Telangana, stepping out of traditional tiger forests and keeping everyone, from villagers waking up to the presence of the big cats in their neighbourhood to forest department officials, on their toes.
At least two ‘new entrants’ have managed to cross the tiger corridor forests in KB Asifabad district with one of them reaching Kamareddy district, passing through Mancherial, Nirmal, and Nizamabad districts, while another made its way into Peddapalli district crossing over from Mancherial, that lies south of KB Asifabad.
The past few months saw four to six tigers enter Telangana either from the Tippershwar wildlife sanctuary or the Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve in Maharashtra and follow what officials say were ‘traditional tiger routes’. After entering KB Asifabad district, at least two of them have travelled further south.
Huge chunks of forest land which were previously under encroachment have been cleared of people resulting in tigers likely feeling safer about moving into and through such areas. Previously, encroachments were cut off available paths to tigers to go beyond Asifabad district, field director of Kawal tiger reserve S. Shantaram said.
In Peddapalli district, teams of forest officials and staff have been on the go over the past two days with reports of a tiger near Malyalapalli. “There is not much of forest area here, but for some hillocks. One goatherd reported seeing pug marks and we have been trying to locate the tiger,” deputy range officer G. Komuraiah said.
This tiger was earlier seen in the coal belt areas near Ramagundam. Forest officials have alerted people in 12 mandals of the district to be careful when going about their daily work and chores.
In Kamareddy district, a tiger that was spotted last week continued to wander and has been reported to have made multiple cattle kills. With news of such kills spreading quickly and people going to see the cattle carcasses, the tiger, officials said, was being forced to be constantly on the move — because of the disturbance and also being forced to make fresh kills. So far, its movements were found in Domakunta, Bibipenta and Bhiknoor mandals, with officials hoping that the tiger will not come into conflict with people.
In addition to the ‘new entrants’, even other ‘not-so-local’ tigers appear to be on the move, putting forest staff on the alert. Three days ago there were reports of a tiger in Kollapur mandal of Nagarkurnool district and it was first presumed that this animal may have strayed into the Malleswaram, Vemkal, and Yangampalli thanda from the Amrabad tiger reserve.
“But this one most likely came from the other side of River Krishna from the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam tiger reserve in Andhra Pradesh. Last year too a tiger came over from the NSTR and returned,” forest section officer from Kollapur Mujeeb Ghouri said.
“It has not been seen since but under the leadership of our range officer Maqdoom Hussain and district forest office Revanth Chandra, we have placed camera traps to see if the tiger is still in this area. Instead of crossing the river back into NSTR, it may have gone into our Amrabad tiger reserve,” Ghouri said.
Tiger in the neighbourhood? Dos and Don’ts
Do not enter nearby forests.
Do not go alone into agricultural fields
Return home by 4 pm, and do not go out till 9 am.
Keep a watch on children, ensure they do not go away from home.
If tiger, or pugmarks, are seen immediately inform local police and forest officials.
Do not poison cattle kills, use snares to kill or trap the tiger.
Those causing harm to tigers will face severe punishment as per law.
