Wandering Tiger Likely in Search of New Home in Mulugu

 Hyderabad: A young male tiger wandering between Mulugu and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts over the past couple of weeks has kindled hope that the forests in Mulugu district, once a former home for resident tigers, may just be able to reclaim that status.

The sub-adult male tiger, believed to be around 18 to 20 months of age, or thereabout, is now confirmed to have come into Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary in Mulugu district from the forests of Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh and was its presence was first recorded in the form of pugmarks on the sandy bed of the Godavari river that forms a border between the two states.

“Tracking its movements backwards after we contacted and checked with Chhattisgarh forest department officials, we believe that it entered through a pass near Alubaka village in Venkatapuram mandal of Mulugu in the thickly forested Nuguru hill range. From then on, it has been moving between Mulug and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts and is now back in our district,” Mulugu’s District Forest Officer Rahul Jadhav said.

The tiger apparently has been using the scenic route in Telangana, first entering through a pass in the Nuguru Hill range, in which the famous Bogatha Waterfalls is located. Telangana’s highest peak, Doligutta, is also in this hill range. And ever since it’s believed date of entering Telangana – December 10 – it has been crossing streams, and passing by some villages. And when crossing the Godavari river bed, its pugmarks were tracked for a few kilometres on the river bed. And along the way, it also successfully negotiated a sand-mining area without coming into conflict with anyone.

“We have intense monitoring of its movements and looking at possible directions it might move in to ensure that people – if the tiger’s projected path has villages – are alerted to its possible presence,” Rahul Jadav said.

The sub-adult male is believed to be searching for a place to settle down. “It is our guest now,” Rahul Jadhav said, adding “typically, when a male cub reaches sub-adulthood, its mother drives him away and we believe that this one set out to search for a home of its own.”

After its entry into Eturnagaram sanctuary, the tiger wandered off into Manuguru forest in Bhadradri-Kothagudem and is now back in Mulugu and has been going back and forth. Currently, it is believed to be headed southwards through Bandal reserve forest block that forms a corridor of forest area between Eturunagaram and Pakhal wildlife sanctuaries.

If the young tiger does indeed settle down in the Mulugu forests, it will be the first time after 2005 that these forests, once home to several tigers, will be home for a tiger again.