Tiger cubs \'rescued\' by villagers being sent to Tirupati zoo

HYDERABAD: The four female tiger cubs ‘rescued’ by the villagers in Nandyal district of Andhra Pradesh were being sent to the Sri Venkateswara Zoo Park in Tirupati, meaning, they might spend the rest of their lives in captivity.

A late night attempt on Wednesday to reunite the four with their mother did not succeed. AP forest officials said they took all factors into consideration – including the well-being of the cubs, and the likely chances that their mother would come to reclaim them – and decided to shift them to the zoo.

The four cubs were found by the inhabitants of Pedda Gummadapuram village in Atmakur mandal, Nandyal district, on March 6. They were immediately taken into custody by forest officials, who kept them at a guest house of the forest department in Atmakur. On Wednesday night, the cubs were carried to a spot in the forest near Pedda Gummadapuram village, the place where they were first found.

They were left there till the early hours on Thursday in the hope that their mother might return to take them back to the forests.

Pugmarks of a tigress were found not very far from the original spot. One villager reported seeing a tiger on Wednesday afternoon.

The Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve’s field director Srinivas Reddy told Deccan Chronicle on Thursday, “Yesterday we found evidence of the tigress’ presence in one area. From there, it could have moved to an entirely different part of the forest.”

A problem is that taking the cubs to different locations night after night will stress them out. “The best possible decision thus was to move the cubs to the zoo. They will be kept in a separate enclosure with minimum human interference. Let us see if we can ‘rewild’ them after they grow up,” he said.

Meanwhile, critics argue that instead of tiring the cubs out by leaving them in a cage in the hot afternoon on March 6 - the day they were found – a proper attempt should have been made that night itself.

“Even yesterday, the arrangements were questionable. There were too many vehicles in the area where the cage with the cubs was left. The question of the tigress coming even close to the cage did not arise,” the sources said.