Forest officials find pugmarks of three missing tigers in Kaghaznagar

Led by District Forest Officer Neeraj Kumar Tebriwal, eight teams comprising around 120 officials and animal trackers drawn from the neighbouring Mancherial district and volunteers of NGOs scanned the forest to trace the tigers from 9 am till 6 pm

Kaghaznagar: Forest officials, who were continuing their efforts for the second day to trace the three tigers that went missing after consuming the poisoned carcass of a cattle kill in the forests of Dharegaon village in Kaghaznagar mandal, have reportedly found pugmarks of the three tigers on Thursday.

Led by District Forest Officer Neeraj Kumar Tebriwal, eight teams comprising around 120 officials and animal trackers drawn from the neighbouring Mancherial district and volunteers of NGOs scanned the forest to trace the tigers from 9 am till 6 pm. It was learnt that they spotted pugmarks of the three tigers in certain parts of the forests.

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They combed the forest from various directions by coordinating with their counterparts from Asifabad forest division. “Fresh pugmarks of the tigers were noticed in the forests. The information of the location of the pugmarks has been shared with higher officials,” a source told ‘Telangana Today’. The development cheered the officials who were facing flak following the death of two tigers in the forests of Dharegaon in two days.

Meanwhile, a calf was killed, reportedly by a tiger, in the forests of Ootpalli village in Kaghaznagar mandal. The incident came to light on Thursday. Ootpalli is situated near the spot where the two tigers were found dead. CCTV camera traps were installed at the spot to check if the tigers were feeding on the carcass.

Barely in a gap of two days, a one and half year old female cub named S15 and a six-year-old male tiger called S9 were found dead in the forests of Dharegaon village on January 6 and 8 respectively. The cause of the death of one of these was suspected to be poisoning.

As per CCTV footage retrieved later, two cubs and an adult tiger consumed the meat of the carcass of the cattle killed by the tigers on December 30 or 31, prompting the forest officials to look out for the remaining tigers. The officials launched an intensive search to find the three tigers by deploying 15 teams of 80 officials including animal trackers on Wednesday.