KOMARAM BHEEM ASIFABAD: Not only villagers in the interiors but even some animal trackers are fearing a threat to their life from the tiger, after they were deployed in the deep forests to track the animal’s movement over a 30-km radius between Bejjur and Penchikalpet mandals.
The animal trackers are getting confused as the tiger, which has already killed two persons last year, is frequently changing its directions, which is not normal behaviour.
One of them said he spotted a tiger sleeping just five metres away in the bushes while he was tracking its movement a week back. It woke up on sensing his presence and escaped before he could call for reinforcements.
They lament that although they carry traditional weapons like a long knife to clear the bushes and also for self-defence, they do not have sophisticated weapons despite the perils from the wild animals.
Another said they were under constant stress because the tiger could jump on them from any corner and any time, especially in the nights.
Each forest beat officer, along with six watchers or animal trackers, keeps track of the tiger’s movement in the deep forests either in a vehicle or on foot.
Due to signal problems, talking to fellow-trackers on mobiles is ruled out and walkie-talkie sets cannot be given to everyone, said one.
District forest officer Shantharam said that they will double the installation of existing 120 trapping cameras to track the tiger movement and collect the data twice a day. He said a total of 150 forest staff is engaged in trapping operations.
He said they been instructed to go for sealing borders in order to restrict the tigers’ movement inside Telangana territory because it would be difficult to catch the animal once it enters Maharashtra.
Made Madhukar from Papannapet village said that they wish that the animal is trapped soon so that they can heave a sigh of relief.
He said that forest officials are not allowing them to go to their own agriculture lands that are located close to Kandi Bheemanna temple forest area where tiger trapping operations are underway.
