Tiger killed in Komaram Bheem Asifabad, hide seized in Maharashtra during sale
ADILABAD: The Maharashtra police on Monday announced the seizure of a tiger hide after the big cat was killed in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. Six people were arrested along with the seizure. Coming 10 days after a partial tiger skeleton was discovered in Bellampalli forests, conservationists are worried about the threat to tigers, as four tigers previously spotted traversing the route from Komaram Bheem Asifabad to Maharashtra districts are nowhere to be found.
There have been repeated incidents of tigers being killed in this region, with one electrocuted in Jaipur mandal in 2019, one being killed in Rangapet four years ago and another being killed in Kotapalli in 2016.
There has been an increased movement of tigers between the forests in Maharashtra and in the buffer zone of Telangana’s Kawal tiger reserve, bringing with them the threat of poachers.
In the latest instance, the Maharashtra forest staff in Chandrapur arrested the poachers as they were trying to sell the hide. Officials said that those arrested on Monday were from the Ginnedhari area of Tiryani mandal in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
Officials also posited that the hide could be of tigress K4, the first to have been born in Telangana after the state formation, in the Kadamba forest region of Kagaznagar. K4 is an offspring of tigress Phalguna, who migrated from Maharashtra to Telangana to give birth.
Forest officials said K4 was last spotted in 2018 through camera trap images, with an iron wire snare cutting into its abdomen, after it was caught in an illegal trap.
Forest officer Srikanth Pawar, of Chandrapur forest division, said they were investigating the incident after the accused confessed that they had collected the tiger skin from the Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
He said they took the accused into custody when they were ready to transport the hide from Pataguda village in Jiviti Taluq, which is on the border of Telangana and Maharashtra.
Mirza Kareem Baig, the founder of the Forests and Wild Life Protection Society (FAWPS), said it was unfortunate that forest department officials of the Adilabad district were not tracking the tigers as diligently as poachers.
“Forest officials are just washing their hands saying that the tigers are missing and migrated to Maharashtra and announcing the death of the missing tigers when their skin is seized somewhere else or within the district,” Baig said.
Neeraj Tibrewal, DFO of Komaram Bheem Asifabad told Deccan Chronicle that as per the information shared by Maharashtra forest officials, the tiger was crossing into Komaram Bheem Asifabad district from bordering Maharashtra.
He said he will be able to confirm about the tiger only after going through its pattern and records. The official said it would take three to four days to confirm the same, and they are probing the accused to find out more information.
“We don’t know yet whether the tiger skin that was seized was that of K4,” Tibrewal said.
