The forest department officials took the cubs into their custody. (Representative)
Nandyala, Andhra Pradesh:
On Monday morning, four healthy tiger cubs were found in a house in Gummadapuram village of Nandyala district and on receiving information, the forest department officials took them into custody.
#Andhra Pradesh: Four #Tiger Spotted near Peddagummadapuram village, #atmakur in the forest #nandyal, The villagers rescued these cubs and locked them in a room #Forest Department Was informed.
Hope they meet again 🥺 pic.twitter.com/trn2m8TpWE
– Karthikere (@Karthik_kare) March 6, 2023
A forest official said the tigress was roaring and moving within a radius of 2 km of the area under Kothapalli mandal in Nandyala district.
Animal trackers managed to quickly move to the spot to find the cubs and cordon off the area. The Forest Department has installed a large number of camera traps. According to officials, the cubs are quite healthy and are about three to four months old.
The officials are trying to reach the tigress in the next 24 or 48 hours. In the event the mother takes the cubs back, it would be a good ending, otherwise the next call would be how to escalate the situation, said Shanti Priya Pandey, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife (APCCF, WL).
“How the cubs reached there is still a mystery to us. I think the tigress could have been chased by a pack of wild dogs. In a hurry, it could have abandoned the cubs,” Pandey said.
“Do we rear them for some time and then take them to the zoo or make an in-situ kind of enclosure? It requires a lot of permission from the NTCA. Protocol says we need to form a committee Headed by Chief Wildlife Warden nominee, NTCA nominee, Local Area Director…,” he said, indicating that it was too early to draw a definite conclusion.
Mr Pandey, however, said forest officials are taking precautions to ensure that they do not leave a human imprint on the quartet, erasing the original wild imprint as the mother can sometimes reject.
The officials are following the protocol laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in handling the orphaned or abandoned cubs.
According to the official, the chances of survival of the cubs are better if they are successfully returned to the wild as compared to non-wilder ones.
While the department is assessing options to return the cubs, Mr Pandey said the behavior of the mother is important.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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