ADILABAD: The death of an adult tigress two days ago apparently from electrocution has set off alarm bells ringing in the forest department over the safety of the big cats in the tiger corridor forests of the erstwhile Adilabad district. The dead tigress was believed to be the offspring of Phalguna, the first tigress to settle down in Telangana in 2015. While officials confirmed that an adult tigress was found dead in KB Asifabad district on Friday, they could not say anything about its identity for certain. However, sources said the dead tigress could be the eight-year-old K8 (Kadamba 8, named after the Kadamba forest beat where it was born).The carcass of the tigress, the resident adult female, was found in Agharguda beat in Gundepalli forest section in Penchikalpet forest range in Kagaznagar forest division in KB Asifabad district.Officials in the district refused to either confirm or deny that the dead animal was a tigress, adding that they were not immediately certain if the animal fell prey to poachers, or to farmers who put up live electric wire fences to protect their crops from wild animals – particularly wild boar or deer.K8, which set up its territory in Penchikalpet, has been living in the area for around eight years. It is reported to have been born in 2017 and was part of Phalguna’s second litter.Incidentally, a forest department proposal to declare the corridor forest areas in Kagaznagar forest division as a ‘conservation reserve’ which would have afforded increased protection measures to the forest, has been pending with the government for several months. The corridor areas have active tiger movement with the big cats moving to and fro from Maharashtra into Telangana and back and several of the tigers that moved into Telangana, have set up their territories in the corridor areas.Back in 2020 when K8 was sighted drinking the water in the Peddavagu near Regichettu Madugu area, a video of it at the stream went viral on social media.
Source link
