Panic in Bheemaram mandal after big cat strikes farmland

Three cattle were injured in a suspected tiger attack in Bheemaram mandal of Jagtial district. Forest officials collected pugmarks and alerted villagers. An itinerant tiger has travelled across 11 districts in Telangana, with multiple cattle attacks reported in recent weeks.

Hyderabad: Panic broke out in the Bheemaram mandal in Jagtial district after three cattle were injured in a tiger attack early on Saturday.

According to the locals, a few bulls and cows were tied in a field on the outskirts of Muthkuraopet village in Bheemaram mandal by a local farmer the previous night.

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On Saturday morning, when the farmer went to the field, he noticed the three cattle were injured in a tiger attack. On noticing it, the local village head informed the forest officials, who reached the spot along with the trackers and lifted the pugmarks from the spot.

The forest officials have warned the villagers of Bheemaram mandal to be on alert in view of the movement of wild animals in the mandal. The farmers were asked to move around in groups when they head to the fields and return early to the village.

The forest officials are identifying the pugmarks with those stored in their database to verify whether it is the same tiger or a new one. Four days ago, the forest officials alerted the local villagers about movement of the big cat in the forest belt close to the villages.

There is also frequent movement of leopards in different mandals of Jagtial and Rajanna Sircilla districts in the last fortnight, with around three instances of leopard attacking cattle reported in the two districts.

An itinerant tiger has been moving around in the State for the last three months and has travelled 11 districts since its entry into Telangana from Maharashtra. In January, it moved closer to Hyderabad and wandered in Turkapally and Yadadri mandals of the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district.

The forest officials believe that the tiger moved away from its birthplace to establish its territory or in search of a mate. It had killed close to 20 cattle in around 13 attacks in 40 days in the State.