HYDERABAD: The tiger that killed a woman and injured a man in two separate attacks in Kumarambheem district, Telangana, has crossed over into the forest area in Maharashtra.
“We have got information from forest officials in Maharashtra that they noticed a tiger kill within their border. We suspect that it is the same tiger that came to Telangana and has now crossed over into Maharashtra,” Kawal Tiger Reserve Field Director S Shantharam told TOI on Tuesday.
However, this does not mean that the tiger may not venture back into the Telangana side once again. “It is moving in the forest area along the border of both the states,” Shantharam said.
The efforts of forest officials to capture images of the tiger on camera traps have not yielded results.
Foresters also used drones in the hope that they would be able to locate the tiger and follow its movements. However, the thick vegetation has prevented any sighting of the tiger.
Forest officials have been able to detect tiger pugmarks wherever it was reported to have been sighted in Kumarambheem Asifabad.
“Farmers have to continue to use the face masks that we have distributed for their safety,” Shantharam said, urging farmers not to drop their guard but to continue to be on alert as advised by forest officials.
It may be mentioned here that on November 29, the tiger killed a 21-year-old woman, Morle Laxmi, at Nazrulnagar in Gannaravam village in Kagaznagar while she was working in a cotton field. The next day, on November 30, it injured a 30-year-old man, R Suresh, who was also working in a cotton field in Dubbaguda in Sirpur. He is out of danger in a hospital in Mancherial where he was admitted.