Tiger terror gives sleepless nights to people in Prathipadu; cage operation planned

Kakinada: Fear has gripped villagers in Prathipadu Mandal in the Kakinada district after Royal Bengal Tiger was spotted in the area four days ago. This is for the first time that the tiger movement was witnessed in their agricultural fields. District Forest Officials are making all efforts to capture the tiger.

The story

On 29 May, an adult male tiger strayed into human habitation and killed six buffaloes in Gollaprolu. On receiving information, Andhra Pradesh Forest Department teams with around 150 personnel set up a base camp and installed CCTV cameras at 40 places to capture a tiger.

Villagers were asked to stay indoors Yeleswaram, Sankavaram, Rowthulapudi, Annavaram, Kotananduru, Prathipadu, Tuni, Jaggampeta, and Gokavaram villages border Addatheegala and other neighboring forests. Forest officials suspect that the tiger might have entered the village in search of prey.

Where is the tiger now?

Speaking to News Meter, District Forest Officer IKV Raju said: "As on 1 June, we found pug marks of the tiger near Pothuluru Metta. We are closely monitoring the movement of the tiger. As there is a forest nearby, the tiger is likely to return". The teams will set up a base camp at Pothuluru metta for another week to trace its movements.

"We are in touch with National Tiger Conservation Authority to know details about the big cat," said the Forest officer.

Cage Operation

As an alternative, forest officials have also planned a 'cage operation .'Three cages were brought from Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, Visakhapatnam, to capture the tiger. As a part of the operation, a cage is a setup at a place where the movement of the tiger is seen in the last 2-3 days. The officials created an atmosphere for luring the tiger into a cage where prey would be offered as bait (goat kept inside the cage). Monitoring the cage, once the tiger takes the bait, the trap will be operated with remote control. The cage will be placed in the deep forest. Previously, two cage operations were conducted in Eluru and Anantapur and were said to be successful.

Tiger corridor

In December 2021, a tiger was sighted through the camera trap in the Papikonda National Park in Rajahmundry. Since then, the movement of tigers has been recorded between the Andhra-Odisha border. On 29 April 2022, the tiger's pug marks were recorded in Krishnapatnam Panchayat in S. Kota Mandal. Some more pug marks were recorded in Nathavaram Mandal in the Visakhapatnam district within a week. On 27 May, the tiger was sighted along Polavaram. According to the officials, the tiger found in Prathipadu Mandal might have come from the North Andhra region.

Odisha, Northern Andhra, and the Godavari up to Papikonda National Park (PNP) were once a tiger corridor. A Tiger corridor is a stretch of land linking habitats and allowing wildlife movement. Without corridors, the tiger habitat can become fragmented and its population isolated, leaving the animal vulnerable to localized extinction.

National Tiger Conservation Authority in collaboration with the Wild Institute of India, has mapped 32 tiger corridors. One such corridor is in Nagarjuna Sagar-Sri Venkateswara National Park in Andhra Pradesh.