Forest officials of Visakhapatnam have started "Operation Cage" to catch a four-year-old tiger which is on the prowl in the forest areas of Anakapalle district for the past few days.
As many as 10 cattle were killed by the tiger in the last few days.
Forest officials found CCTV pictures of the tiger last week and set up cages in the forest area. But, it's been escaping from cages for the last two weeks.
Officials expected that the tiger came from Chhattisgarh and Odisha forest regions.
The Chief Conservator of Forests officer Ram Mohan said, "A four years male tiger was spotted near Sabbavaram and Anakapalli forest area in last few days. We are trying to catch the tiger. But it went East Godavari in June month and came again to the Visakhapatnam region. Our forest officials are trying to catch the tiger without any harm to the tiger. It's a very rare breed. There are no such tigers like this one in the Andhra Pradesh forest area. We have installed cages and CCTV cameras. CCTV cameras captured the tiger last week."
Ram Mohan said, "The tiger killed calves till today for survival. However, no attacks on humans have been reported. We asked people not to panic but the villagers should be alert."
"It is our responsibility to protect the animal and we have asked the villagers not to harm the animal. Told them not to try to take selfies with the tiger whenever it is sighted. We use chemicals to catch the tiger in case of emergency. But it's our last resort," he added.
Meanwhile, the tiger hunting down the calves has left the villagers in panic.
The forest officials are taking a lot of precautions to catch the tiger alive, without harming the tiger and the villagers.
The District forest officer Anantha Shankar is monitoring the situation in the field every minute.
( With inputs from ANI )
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