Tiger moves around villages of Turkapally mandal, residents in fear
An elusive tiger continues to roam villages in Turkapally mandal of Yadadri Bhuvanigiri district, keeping forest officials and residents on alert. Officials are tracking its movement using camera traps and drones after several cattle killings
Hyderabad: The elusive tiger continues to give tense moments to forest officials and villagers in Turkapally mandal of Yadadri Bhuvanigiri district.
The tiger has now moved towards Chinna Laxmapur village, located close to the Keesara–Yadadri Gutta highway. On Saturday morning, local villagers found pugmarks of the tiger near a well and alerted forest officials.
A team of forest officials, accompanied by tiger trackers, reached the village and recorded the pugmarks. On Friday night, a lorry driver claimed to have seen the tiger at Vasalamarri village on the Tirumalapuram–Turkapally road around 1 am while it was chasing a wild boar near a dhaba close to the main road. He immediately alerted some locals at Turkapally and went away.
In the morning, tiger trackers and forest officials reached the spot and checked the pugmarks to map the route taken by the tiger. Coincidentally, while the forest officials were near Vasalamarri, they received information about the movement of a tiger at Chinna Laxmapur.
The forest officials then headed to the village and collected the pugmarks. Villagers were asked to remain vigilant and make no attempts to harm the tiger. “We are cooperating with the forest officials. The animal is suspected to have moved into the reserve forest near the village,” said Chinna Laxmapur Sarpanch Komatireddy Santosha Bhaskareddy.
The tiger moved into Yadadri Bhuvanigiri district a fortnight ago and has been moving around since then. It has killed six cattle in three different villages in the last 15 days. However, since Monday, no fresh attack on cattle has been reported.
Forest officials have set up camera traps at different locations, installed trap cages, and are using thermal drone cameras to track the tiger.
