Kawal reserve loses its only tiger to poaching

SANGAREDDY: Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR) has lost the only tiger in its 893.23 sq.km core area to poaching. The tiger’s skin was recovered by the forest officials from the residence of a man named Lingaiah in Goutham Nagar, Mandamarry town on Thursday.

The tiger’s arrival to the core area of the reserve just last month was followed by a grand announcement by reserve officials. They had also disclosed its location, claiming that it was spotted at Kadem forest range in Khanapur division.

With this tiger’s death, Kawal tiger reserve is now home to only two confirmed reports of tigers, in the reserve’s 1,125.89 sq.km buffer area. This is the second seizure of tiger skin this month. The skin earlier seized this month was also from a tiger from the reserve.

According to DFO K Ramalingam, a Maharashtra-based NGO had contacted them informing of a person interested in selling tiger skin to them. The NGO volunteers who had been working for sometime in the Chandrapur area in Maharashtra on the issue of poaching, were able to get in touch with the poachers in Mancherial in the guise of potential buyers.

Following this, forest officials on Thursday went along with the NGO representatives as buyers to meet Lingaiah and seized the tiger skin from him. Ramalingam said that the tiger skin will be sent to the forensics lab in Hyderabad for analysis. “Cheetah, the sniffer dog recently inducted  by the forest department, had helped in identification of poachers earlier will be used now,” he said.