Amaravati: The elusive male tiger, who strayed into Andhra Pradesh from Maharashtra after first moving from its habitat in Chhattisgarh, terrorising villagers for a week, was successfully captured on Friday, February 6.
The operation was led by the Forest Department of Andhra Pradesh, with the support of Pune-based RESQ, WWF India and the Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society (HyTICOS).
The big cat was moving through human habitations and killing cattle near Rajahmundry in East Godavari district for the last six days. It was captured in Kurmapuram village in Rayavaram mandal of East Godavari.
Officials fired a tranquiliser to capture the tiger near a lake. Earlier, a forest team had spotted the animal in the backyard of a deserted house near the village and launched an operation.
District Forest Officer B Prabhakara Rao said that due to the commotion by the surrounding people, the big cat got frightened, ran into the nearby fields and entered a cattle shed. Though there were two buffaloes in the cattle shed, the tiger did not harm them.
The forest officials reportedly fired three tranquilliser shots, and one of them hit the tiger. It then ran towards a nearby lake, where it was finally captured. The officials were making arrangements to shift the tiger to Visakhapatnam Zoo.
The officials had requested people in one kilometer radius to remain indoors. Since the tiger’s nature is very sensitive, people were requested not to create any obstacles to its movements.
Following this, the team executed the operation successfully. Police provided full cooperation to the Forest Department of Rajahmundry for this operation. Officials stated that the tiger had only attacked cattle and there have been no attacks on humans.
The big cat killed several cattle during the last six days in areas surrounding Rajahmundry town, triggering panic among people and prompting the Forest Department to launch a massive operation.
Specialised teams of forest officials conducted extensive searches around villages where the tiger attacked the cattle.
Authorities had installed 25 trap cameras along potential tiger routes, cattle attack zones, and water sources to track the tiger’s movements.
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