Telangana: Killer tiger feasts on wild boar, cheers forest officials in Asifabad

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: The killer tiger, which continued to roam in plains triggering panic among rural folks and resulting in sleepless nights to authorities of the forest department for four days in a row, entered deep forests of Bejjur range and killed a wild boar on Monday. The development has cheered the authorities of the […]

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: The killer tiger, which continued to roam in plains triggering panic among rural folks and resulting in sleepless nights to authorities of the forest department for four days in a row, entered deep forests of Bejjur range and killed a wild boar on Monday. The development has cheered the authorities of the forest department.

“The big cat has culled a wild boar weighing 25 kilograms and consumed full meat except for its skull in the forests of Ambagatta in Bejjur range. It apparently feasted on the kill as it did not have flesh since it mauled a tribal farmer to death at Gondapur village in Wankidi mandal on November 15. It’s a welcome sign,” G Dinesh Kumar, in-charge District Forest Officer told ‘Telangana Today.’

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Named A3, the carnivore made an unsuccessful hunt by attacking a bullock in a shed at Kukuda village in Bejjur mandal on Sunday night. The tiger was sighted at a stream near Marthidi village and reportedly moved at an irrigation tank near Babasagar village in Chintalamanepalli mandal on Sunday. It killed a sheep, but did not eat its meat at Bhupalapatnam village in Sirpur (T) mandal on Saturday.

Forest authorities believe that the territorial animals might enter the forests of neighboring Maharashtra by crossing Pranahita river as it was in search of habitat and the forests of Bejjur range were already inhabited by three tigers. They said that it covered 90 kilometers from Wankidi to Bejjur in the last six days.

The authorities said that four teams comprising animal trackers and staffers of the department were deployed to track the movement of the tiger. They alerted the dwellers of Mogavelli, Papanpet and Ambagatta villages about the movement of the tiger. They requested locals not to venture outdoors after 8 pm and to leave agriculture fields before sunset.

The big cat, suspected to have killed Sidam Bheem (69), drifted towards the forests of Kaghaznagar division on November 17. It is sighted near human settlements and agriculture fields and fringes of the forest in several parts of the division, triggering panic among locals and farmers for five days. Farmers and rural folks are living in the grip of fear following the movement of the killer tiger.