Tiger was electrocuted by poachers in core area of Kawal Wildlife Reserve

HYDERABAD: The tiger whose skin was seized by forest officials on Saturday was killed by electrocution about two and a half months ago inside the core area of Kawal Wildlife Reserve, revealed the ongoing investigation into the case.

With death of this three and a half year old tiger, Kawal, one of the largest tiger reserves in India with 2,019 sq.km area, has been left with confirmed report of just one tiger in its 893.23sq.km core area and two in its 1,125.89sq.km buffer area. The presence of the lone tiger in the core area was confirmed only last month. When contacted, Nirmal District Forest Officer Damodar Reddy informed the tiger was poached from Pulgampandri village near Pembi, inside core area of Kawal. The poachers placed a live current wire inside a stream in Pulgampendri.

Electrocution is a common way of poaching wildlife in the State wherein poachers connect an electric wire from a nearby transmission line and leave it inside a water body frequented by wild animals.

Speaking to Express, Dr Saket Badola, Head of TRAFFIC India, wildlife monitoring network, said that their organisation came in touch with one of the poachers while they were looking to sell the tiger’s skin and it informed Telangana Forest Department about it. Following this, forest officials intercepted a vehicle transporting the tiger skin and arrested five persons -- two of them are from Hyderabad and one each from Pembi, Indervelly and Warangal. The five arrested persons are suspected to be habitual poachers. Search is on for another accused poacher.

Since 2012 when Kawal Tiger Reserve came into being, around 15 tigers have been caught on camera in the Reserve and forests in the corridor area connecting Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. However, most of them have gone “missing”.  Even the tiger whose skin was seized, was captured on camera last time in November 2017 after which it went missing.

Another leopard-kill found in Kothapally

Hyderabad : Even as the Forest Department officials are trying to capture the leopard that has created a scare in Kothapally village of Yacharam mandal in Ranga Reddy district, the wild beast made its presence felt again on Sunday as villagers discovered partially eaten carcass of a stray dog.  This is fourth visit of leopard to the village in the last five days. Although the forest officials set up camera traps on Saturday, it continued to elude getting captured on the cameras.