Forest officials step up vigil as tiger restricts movement to Koheda zone in Siddipet

An itinerant tiger has restricted its movement to a 5 km radius in Koheda mandal of Siddipet district, killing seven cattle in Ghanpur and Arepally villages. Forest officials have deployed drones, camera traps, and additional personnel to monitor its movements and prevent tiger-human conflict.

Hyderabad: With the itinerant tiger restricting its movement to a 5 km radius zone in Koheda mandal of Siddipet for the last two days, the forest officials have set up more camera traps and increased vigil to avoid a tiger-human conflict.

The tiger on Sunday killed seven cattle at two places – Ghanpur and Arepally villages of Koheda mandal in Siddipet district. Since then, it has been moving around the villages of Kurella,Thangalapalli, Shangiram, Baswapur and Arepally in the mandal.

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These villages are surrounded by hills and the tiger is finding a safe shelter. The forest teams tracked the movement of the tiger in the hills using drones, said K Babu, sarpanch of Arepally village.
On Tuesday, the forest officials brought in more personnel to monitor the movement of the tiger.

“It has been moving around a small area for the last three days. We are constantly monitoring its movement. We believe it is here because there is plenty of water, hills to take shelter and a safe prey base,” said Forest Range Officer, Siddharth Reddy.

The villagers were asked to shift the cattle from the agriculture fields and cattle sheds located on the outskirts of village to the interior of the village to avoid loss of cattle. Although there are wild animals present such as spotted deer, wild boars, sloth bear and other animals in the forest patch near the Shangiram reservoir, the forest officials believe it is a difficult task for the tiger to hunt in the wild due to the hilly and rough terrain. The easy prey for the tiger is the cattle that it is killing without much effort.

The villagers are also frustrated as the tiger has been roaming in a small area for the last three days, creating a panic and obstructing their regular activities. The tiger in the last fortnight was not staying at a particular place for more than 36 hours and wandered around the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Jangaon and Siddipet districts.