Another migrant tiger seen roaming in Mancherial forests

Even as one migrant tiger crossed into Peddapalli district, another continued to roam forest areas of Jaipur mandal in Mancherial, prompting heightened monitoring by forest and SCCL officials amid panic, precautionary measures and frequent false sighting alerts from villagers.

Mancherial: While one migrant tiger left the district and strayed into the neighbouring Peddapalli district, another tiger continued to roam forest areas of Jaipur mandal on Tuesday.

Two migrant tigers belonging to Maharashtra had drifted into the district in search of territory and were recently sighted near underground coal mines and opencast mining projects of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) on the outskirts of Srirampur village in Naspur mandal. Their movement triggered panic among coal miners and prompted officials to take precautionary measures over the last four days.

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Forest and SCCL officials camped around the mines and projects to ensure safe passage for the tigers and to prevent any casualties among coal miners. They installed CCTV cameras to capture images of the tigers and deployed animal trackers to trail their movement. Awareness was also created among coal miners and villagers regarding the presence of the tigers.

Forest officials said one tiger had migrated to Peddapalli district by crossing the Godavari river on Monday. The other tiger was still staying in the forests of Mudigunta and surrounding villages of Jaipur mandal till Monday night, and its movement was being closely monitored. Efforts were being made to prevent harm to the tiger and loss of human life, officials stated.

Meanwhile, forest officials are struggling to handle frenetic calls from villagers regarding the movement of the tiger. Villagers often claim that a tiger was sighted or that its pugmarks were noticed. Officials are forced to rush to the spot to verify such claims, but said a major portion of them were often found to be false. Dogs and leopards were frequently being mistaken for tigers, the officials reasoned.