Telangana Forest Officials express concern over tiger captured in Maharashtra

"We don’t understand why the tiger was captured. It used to stray into the forests of Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts and was meeting a female tiger in this region at regular intervals. We expected the two would develop a family here, helping the population of tigers here grow,” a senior Forest official said.

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Forest officials in Telangana are skeptical over why a male tiger was captured by officials in Maharashtra on Tuesday.

“We don’t understand why the tiger was captured. It used to stray into the forests of Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts and was meeting a female tiger in this region at regular intervals. We expected the two would develop a family here, helping the population of tigers here grow,” a senior Forest official said.

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Incidentally, Forest officials from Maharashtra informed their counterparts of Telangana after capturing the tiger at Anthragaon village in Makudi block under Rajura Taluq on Tuesday night. “They informed us only after the capture. We are not sure as to why the decision was made. They were sharing information about the movement of tigers on borders every day,” the official disclosed.

Forest officials in Maharashtra apparently captured the tiger when it killed Jangu Ram Athram and Lalubai Arjun Athram in Virur forests there recently. It was suspected that the same tiger killed Morle Lakshmi (21) at Easgaon village in Kagaznagar mandal on November 29 and attacked Rauthu Suresh at Dubbagudem village in Sirpur (T) mandal on November 30.

However, forest officials here opined that the tiger was provoked into killing Lakshmi after being chased by locals. They reasoned that the tiger would have dragged the body of Lakshmi into the bushes if it was a man-eater. It might have been irritated by the locals who trailed it from two directions in an attempt to take its photographs and videos, they said.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the capture of the tiger, they said Forest officials in Maharashtra however, had their own norms. They informed that at least three tigers from Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district of the neighbouring State were shuttling between Maharashtra and Telangana in search of territory and partners for mating in this winter for quite a long time.

At present, around 11 resident tigers and 3 migrant tigers are said to be inhabiting the forests of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district. Some of them enter the forests of Mancherial district in search of territory and companions. At least two tigers are learnt to be residing in the forests of Mancherial district.
Another tiger reserve proposed in Maharashtra

Meanwhile, the forest department of Maharashtra is planning to create another tiger reserve at Kanargaon village on the borders of Telangana considering the migration of the tigers to this region. They prepared a proposal of the reserve in addition to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. They disclosed this during an inter-state meeting held in presence of PCCF RM Dobriyal near Sirpur (T) recently.