PEDDAPALLI: Peddapalli Forest Department officials have intensified efforts to track the tiger, which has been prowling in the district forest area for the past few weeks, after they spotted fresh pugmarks of the wild animal near the NTPC reservoir in Ramagundam on Saturday.
Speaking to Express, District Forest Officer (DFO) M Ravi Prasad said it is suspected that the tiger must have reached the reservoir area to drink water after nabbing some wild animal for eating it. The tiger must have dragged the prey to the reservoir site and had its meal there, he opined.
After spotting the fresh pugmarks, the authorities have alerted the local residents and have increased vigil in the area.It maybe mentioned here that two days ago, a local resident, Balasani Raju, had spotted the tiger near the Yellamma temple in Rangapur.
It is learnt that, on Friday, it entered the Ramagiri Fort situated on a vast forest land of 9,800 acres. In the wake of this, the locals have stopped taking their cattle to the adjacent forest areas for grazing. Ravi Prasad also said that the authorities have decided to install 10 more cameras in the forest area to track the movement of the wild animal.