Kothagudem: A tiger was spotted near Singareni’s PK OC-II opencast mine in Manugur of Kothagudem district in the early hours of Thursday.
According to Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) officials, a private security guard, Veeraiah, spotted the big cat at around 3 am at the mine’s pipe yard, and alerted them and workers.
On receiving the information, Manugur Forest Divisional Officer (FDO) T Venu Babu, Forest Range Officer G Prasada Rao and Section Officer Hari Prashanth reached the spot along with SCCL Manugur Area General Manager Jakkam Ramesh. They measured the tiger pug marks and informed the same to higher officials.
Speaking to the media, Venu Babu appealed to the locals not to cause any harm to the animal, and advised them to be cautious and not to venture into the forests. If the tiger killed cattle, the Forest Department would compensate to the owners.
The tiger pug marks were first spotted in the second and third weeks of November in Karakagudem, Allapalli, Manugur and Gundala mandals in Kothagudem district. Since then, the officials were on the task of tracking the movements of the animal.
Again on November 26 and 27, the tiger was sighted moving from Sarapaka Pushkaravanam towards Nagineniprolu village in Burgampahad mandal and near the forests at Ramachandrapuram in Aswapuram mandal.
CCTVs were installed near the waterholes in the forests in the Yellandu, Paloncha and Manugur divisions, forest officials said.
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