Fear haunts farmers after wild animals attack cattle-grazers

ADILABAD: Farmers are living in fear following two incidents of forest animals attacking cattle-grazers within three days of each other in Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts.

A tiger attacked cattle-grazer Enumula Shankar (65) near a rivulet on the outskirts of the Vemanapalli in Mancherial district on September 30 and a wild bear attacked Kanaka Chinnu (53), near Burnur village in Sirpur (U) mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district on Saturday. Chinnu has been shifted to RIMS, Adilabad, for treatment.    Both of them narrowly escaped death.            

Following the Vemulapalli incident, forest officials began searching for the animal and found tiger pug marks in the area where the incident happened. Officials concluded that it was a tiger that had attacked Shankar. This is the first attack by a tiger in over a year. Two persons were killed by a tiger in Penchikalpet and Bejjur mandals during the cotton season last year in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

Meanwhile, cattle owners found the carcass of the missing three bullocks in the forests near Belgam Thanda in Kubeer mandal. It is believed that a tiger had killed the cattle. Officials from Nirmal said that a tiger had entered the forests in Narsapur (G) from Maharashtra a few days back.

Meanwhile, five 30-member teams have been formed besides camera traps in select places to track the tiger movement in Vemanapalli forest.  

Forest staff is creating awareness among local farmers against setting up live electric wires to protect their standing crops. They also distributed face masks to farmers, who go to their fields for weeding and spraying pesticides to cotton, soya and redgram  standing crops.