Tiger Spotted in Maharashtra’s Beed Forests After Nearly a Century
Image: Wikimedia Commons (representative)
A four-year-old tiger weighing about 200 kg has been recorded in the forests of Maharashtra’s Beed district, the first tiger seen in the Ashti and Patoda forest areas since the 1910s and 1920s, Range Forest Officer Amol Munde said on Monday, October 19, according to PTI. The animal left the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal in 2023 and walked through Chandrapur, Dharashiv, Latur and Ahilyanagar districts before camera traps caught it in the Brahmgaon forest range of Ashti tehsil on August 20.
A Long Walk Across Marathwada
In September, camera-trap data showed the tiger moving through the Ashti and Patoda forests and then towards the Kari area near Barshi in Solapur district. Officials said parts of Ashti, Patoda and Beed tehsils offer suitable conditions for big cats, and that a tiger settles where it finds favourable territory. Young tigers from Tipeshwar have made such long journeys before as they leave their birth area to look for territory of their own.
Forest officials said tigers generally keep their distance from human settlements and there is no immediate reason for panic. As a precaution, villagers and livestock owners have been advised to avoid the dense forest and hilly patches the animal uses, and Munde asked people to cooperate with monitoring teams. For more on how wildlife is faring, read about tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh and the baby orangutan India sent home to Indonesia.
Source: Beed Range Forest Officer Amol Munde, as reported by PTI. Also based on reporting by The Tribune and ThePrint.
Image: Wikimedia Commons (representative photo of a Bengal tiger).
