Kothagudem: A tiger was spotted near the SCCL’s PK OC-II opencast mine at Manugur in the district in the early hours of Thursday.
According to officials, the animal was spotted by a private security guard Veeraiah at around 3 am at the pipe yard of the mine. He then alerted the SCCL officials and the workers at the mine.
On receiving information about sighting of tiger, the Forest Divisional Officer (FDO), Manugur, T Venu Babu, Forest Range Officer G Prasada Rao, Section Officer Hari Prashanth reached the spot along with the SCCL Manugur Area General Manager Jakkam Ramesh. The officials inspected and 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 big cat. He advised the public to be cautious and not to venture into the forests and their surroundings in the night as the animal has been moving in the area. If the tiger kills cattle, the forest department will extend proper compensation to the cattle owners.
It may be recalled that 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.
CCTV cameras have been installed near the waterholes in the forests in Yellandu, Paloncha and Manugur divisions to capture the tiger movements, but the cameras have not yet captured the tiger, forest officials said.
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