Where will it head next? Yadadri Tiger keeps foresters on their toes
On Thursday, forest officials were informed that pugmarks were found near Tirumalapuram.
Hyderabad: The tiger that has made the Yadadri-Bhongir district its home for the past 12 days continued to keep foresters on their toes on Thursday, with its pugmarks discovered near Tirumalapuram, some five km west of Dattaipally where it is believed to have stayed for nearly four days.
The tiger continued to play ghost, not being seen by anyone and evading camera traps as well a thermal-imaging drone that was used to try and find it on Wednesday night. On Thursday, forest officials were informed that pugmarks were found near Tirumalapuram.
So far, the tiger’s images have been captured only thrice, once in Mancherial district, once in Siddipet district and for the last time, near Dattaipally on the cattle kill it made.
“Our staff tracked the pugmarks today after getting the information, but after some distance, there were no further traces of the animal. It is likely the tiger took shelter somewhere in the area. For now, the direction it took from Dattaipally looks like it might be headed back to Siddipet district from where it came into Yadadri-Bhongir,” a forest department official said.
Tirumalapuram is about 2 km from Ibrahimpur where the tiger’s presence was first discovered on January 17. Officials said the tiger made no fresh kills of cattle and continued to stay away from humans.
“If it continues in the same direction, then it may be an indication that it could be moving back in the direction it came,” the official said. The sub-adult male tiger, believed to be from the forests of Tadoba in Maharashtra, has been on the go ever since it left Tadoba and has so far in Telangana, walked through KB Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Jagtial, Peddapalle, Karimnagar, Rajanna-Siricilla, Kamareddy, Siddipet, before arriving in Yadadri-Bhongir district.
Meanwhile, people in several villages on both sides of the border between Yadadri-Bhongir and Siddipet district were placed on the alert and have been advised not to venture out after dark, and inform the police, or the forest officials if they have any further information about the tiger.
