ADILABAD: What is the reason behind the failure of forest officials in anticipating the migration of tigers into Telangana territory?
It is being attributed to delays in paying wages to contract-based base camp watchers, who are crucial for monitoring wildlife movement.
The base camp watchers, who track animal movements and relay information to forest officials, have been unpaid for two months.
As a result, many were inactive, causing a lapse in monitoring during the critical tiger mating season when movements are typically higher. Watchers are trained to detect tiger presence, often relying on visible signs like pugmarks, and even invisible ones like smell. This led to vital information not reaching senior officials who in turn could not order precautionary steps.
In fact, with watchers inactive, senior officials could not track the tiger that attacked and killed a woman last week, despite camera traps capturing footage in the last one month.
A male tiger that is believed to have migrated from Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra state in search of a female is suspected to be responsible for attacking cattle and humans. Its movement was reported from Itiykalpahad forest area two days ago.
Base camp watchers, key in tracking tiger movements, have protested the non-payment of wages. They met political leaders, including Prof M Kodandaram and Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju Patel, and submitted memorandums to officials during Praja Vaani. They even met A Indrakaran Reddy who held the forest department portfolio in the BRS regime to express their frustration, stating the delays make it difficult to sustain their families.
The issue was raised in the Assembly two times, following which a month’s wages were released. However, watchers say that wages for two months remain pending.
90 personnel have formed teams and monitoring tiger movement
Drone cameras as well as 30 trap cameras have been arranged
So far this year, 2 tiger attacks on humans reported in which one farmer was killed and another injured
As many as 31 attacks took place on cattle in the last three months in erstwhile Adilabad district