Tiger at 5km From Yadagirigutta

Hyderabad: A young male tiger, who had been keeping forest department officials on their toes as he moved from area to area for the last few months, has resurfaced in the Yadadri-Bhongir district. On Saturday night, he killed two calves and took away the smaller of the two carcasses in a village located five kilometers from the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Yadagirigutta.

The presence of a tiger was reported by a farmer who noticed some pug marks in his field near Ibrahimpur of M. Turkapalle Mandal in the district, forest department officials said on Sunday. “He wanted to be sure before contacting us, went online, looked up what the tiger pug print looked like and informed us. Today morning, we received reports of two calves being killed and found tiger pug tracks in the area,” D. Sudhakar Reddy, forest officer of Yadadri-Bhongir district, said on Sunday.

“This is the first specimen of a tiger in the Yadadri-Bhongir district. It is most likely searching for territory and possibly a mate, neither of which are present in the areas it has been roaming in the last few weeks,” said a senior wildlife official. This also indicates the presence of a tiger in the 16th district of the state so far.

“So far it seems to be moving only at night and is staying away from major settlements. The main concern is what will happen if it enters a town or city, but we hope it will go back the way it came and return to the forests in Mancherial or Asifabad,” the official added.

The famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadagirigutta is about 5 km from Ibrahimpur, near which there is a small forest land. “Among the calves he killed, he took the smaller one and left the larger one weighing around 40 kg. The calf he took could have weighed around 25 kg and could withstand the tiger for at least three days,” said Sudhakar Reddy.

He said that district administration, police and electricity department officials were alerted about the presence of the tiger and villages around Ibrahimpur were warned and people were told to be very careful and not to move after dusk.

The tiger, believed to have crossed into Telangana from Maharashtra, passed through NW Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Jagtial, Rajanna-Siricilla, Kamareddy, Siddipet, Karimnagar, Peddapalli and has now found itself in Yadadri-Bhongir district.