To Catch or Not To Catch? Forest Officials in a Fix As Tiger Kills Again

Hyderabad: Forest officials are reportedly caught in a dilemma on whether to allow the tiger that has been moving in Yadadri-Bhongir district between three villages so far to continue its free movements, or initiate steps to catch it.On Monday, the tiger killed another cattle head, this time near Dattaipally, some 5 km north of Ralla Jangaon, where it killed a calf on Sunday, but was apparently driven away following the commotion that followed. “The last it ate was after the January 17 kills of two calves, one of which it took away to the forest patch near Ibrahimpur village. Since then, there is no evidence that it has fed and it must be hungry, and needs to feed,” a forest department official said.Meanwhile, forest officials said pressure is slowly increasing to catch the tiger and remove it from the landscape it is moving in. So far it has been moving between the three villages, Ibrahimpur in the north and Ralla Jangaon in the south in a stretch that is just over 10 km.“Unless we can reasonably predict which way it may be headed next, placing a trap cage randomly near a village where it made a kill will not serve the purpose. It may give some sense of comfort to the people there but if the cage has to be moved to another location, then they may not agree to that,” the official said.To augment efforts of the district forest staff, the department has rushed a team of experienced tiger trackers from KB Asifabad district and they were expected to get to work late on Mondah night.“If it comes to a decision that it needs to be caught, then the best option will be that once it this happens, a radio collar is placed on it so its movements can be tracked, and it is freed again but that is a decision fraught with its own problems of opposition from people,” another senior forest official said.“It is a sub-adult tiger, in search of a place it can stay put in and find food something is finding hard to do right now. A decision may be taken soon in the next day or two on the next steps, whether to place a cage or two or to have experts to come and tranquilize it. But all of this will depend on whether its movements can be tracked with some degree of certainty.”The kill it made on Monday was barely two kilometres away from the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple on Yadagirigutta. So far, the tiger’s movements appear to be along the north-south direction between Ibrahimpur, where its presence was first noticed, and Ralla Jangaon, where it killed a calf on Sunday.



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