Panic spreads as tiger kills another cow in Rayagada

Rayagada: A Royal Bengal Tiger, which has sparked off panic among villagers in Odisha’s Rayagada district for the last few days, killed a cow as its latest prey.

According to sources, a villager of Ambakhula under Padampur forest range in the district found one of his cows missing on Sunday morning. After failing to trace the cow, he suspected that the tiger might have taken it, the villagers informed the Forest department.

The Forest officials conducted a search operation in the nearby forest and found two legs of a cow and pug marks of a tiger nearby. They suspected that the wild cat might have killed the bovine and dragged it into the forest before eating it.

The tiger has been found moving in the forest areas under Gudari, Padampur, Muniguda and Gunupur ranges in the district for the last few days. It had killed a calf near Tembaguda village on December 12.

The Forest officials said the wild cat is moving in Puliput and Jhumpapur areas under Gunupur range. Since the wild animal is covering nearly 20 km in a night, it has become difficult to be traced by the Forest officials. Though the department has fixed trap cameras in the range, the tiger has not been captured in any camera so far.

Earlier, Gudari forest ranger Dilip Patnaik had said the tiger had strayed from Maharashtra. “The tiger, which strayed into Odisha from Maharashtra and previously roamed the forests of bordering Gajapati district, ventured into the Gudari range a few weeks ago and killed a calf,” he said.