VISAKHAPATNAM: Prospects of catching a tiger that has been evading capture for several weeks look brighter as the big cat visited its prey - a calf that it had hunted a day before at Vissannapeta of Kasimkota mandal, Anakapalle district - on Friday.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Anakapalle forest section officer K Kali Prasad said it was a three to four year old male tiger. The forest officials have set up trap cameras after it killed a calf at Vissannapeta. Two cameras are close to the corpse of the calf. He said they waited there till 7 pm on Thursday.
When they visited on Friday they found visuals of the tiger in two cameras. They could not track its movement as pug marks were washed away due to rain. However, they believe the tiger has been in the same forest hill area for the last three days. The tiger may be looking to mate and, as such, a trap has been laid for it, Kali Prasad said.
He said they have alerted people in villages in a 5 km radius of the hill area. "We have created a tiger alert WhatsApp group to alert people in the villages about tiger movement and precautions to be taken," the forest official said.
The tiger was first spotted in Kakinada and moved forward via Peddapalli, Yelamanchili, and Kotauratla mandals. Kali Prasad said if they find visuals on Saturday too, they will step up efforts to catch the animal.