Royal Bengal Tiger awaits a red carpet welcome in Seshachalam

Royal Bengal Tiger awaits a red carpet welcome in Seshachalam. The presence of two big cats, one male and one female, confirms that there is a Tiger Corridor between Nallamala and Seshachalam, say forest officials.

In the first week of July 2017, a sub-adult male tiger was reportedly spotted venturing from the Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve (NSTR) into the Tiger Corridor located between the Nallamala and Seshachalam hills at Giddalur of Prakasam district.

A week later, the sighting of “suspect pugmarks” on a wet forest road in the Talakona Beat of SV National Park (SVNP) in Tirupati district during a routine combing operation stirred interest within the Forest Department circles.

Despite efforts by senior forest officials to document the evidence, there was ambiguity regarding its classification, with a few officials expressing divergent views.

“I saw it first. I am educated and can distinguish between a tiger and a leopard. I was asked to shut my mouth. I must say it was a leopard,” said a lower-rung Forest Department staffer.

Ten days later, 50 camera traps were brought from the Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary at Siddahout in Kadapa district and installed at various strategic locations in the SVNP zone. It, however, yielded no conclusive evidence. It led to a jibe from a forest official, “It’s not a leopard, but a tiger. You can’t expect it to wait for 10 days to give a pose.”

In a separate incident towards the end of 2019, a red sanders smuggler had reportedly spotted a tiger. Personnel of the Andhra Pradesh Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force, who were on combing duty, apprehended one of the dozen woodcutters. “I have seen a Puli,” he said, gasping for breath.

The task force personnel served him water and tried to calm him down. But, he managed to give them the slip and disappeare into the woods.