Telangana forest department officials spot tiger movement in Bellampalli town

HYDERABAD: An adult male tiger, which has been named after Asifabad district as ‘Asifabad2’ or ‘A2’, was spotted strolling on the outskirts of Bellampalli, a town in Mancherial district, in the wee hours of Saturday, said a Forest Department official from the town.

According to the Forest Department officials, fresh pugmarks that were spotted on Saturday confirmed the presence of the big cat in the town, which falls in the buffer zone of Kawal Tiger Reserve. Before this sighting, the forest officials had received information that ‘A2’ was moving through Goleti and Kairiguda areas in Asifabad, which are closer to Bellampalli.

Meanwhile, the forest officials said that ‘A2’ returned to Murliguda and Dharmaraopet forest areas on the early hours of Saturday itself and is currently nowhere near Bellampally town. The officials also said that the special teams are monitoring the areas round-the-clock. According to Telangana Forest Department, OSD (Wildlife), A Shankaran, the tiger came out of its territory because of inactivity in the coal mines and the dip in number of human beings wandering the streets in the area. 

“The area wherein the pugmarks of the tiger was found, was close to Singareni Collieries Company Limited’s coal mining area, where the mining activity is less now. Besides, due to lockdown, the overall human activity in the neighbourhood has gone down,” Shankaran said. 

Meanwhile, forest officials opined that the tiger might have moved out of the forest in search of areas where it could easily get food and water  as the hunting activity got subdued during summer due to drying up of waterholes in the forests. They also said that this might be a reason why there has been a rise in number of complaints regarding the rise in attacks on cattle, dogs and goats in Bellampalli, Jannaram and surrounding areas over the last two months.