Tadoba Tiger Travels 650 km Across Three States, Safely Tranquilised in Andhra Pradesh
A male tiger from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra was given some medicine to make it sleep in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh on Friday evening. The tiger was found inside a shed where cows are kept at Kurmapuram village in Rayavaram. This tiger had been travelling for a long time 53 days and it came a long way more, than 650 kilometres from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. The tiger is safe now.
The forest officials said that the tiger had moved through the forest corridors and the areas where people live in three states, including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Telangana and then it went to Andhra Pradesh. The tiger had a long journey and during this time the tiger also swam across two big rivers and one of these rivers was the Godavari river before the tiger entered the Papikonda National Park.
The tiger was given some medicine to make it sleep at around 6.50 p.m. It was sleeping in a shed where cows are kept after it had killed a buffalo. The people who take care of the forest tried to give the tiger this medicine in the day. The tiger was resting near a house that nobody lives in in a village called Kurmapuram.. The people who live in the village saw the forest teams and they made a lot of noise. This scared the tiger. It ran away. The officials found the tiger again. They were able to give it the medicine in the evening. The tiger did not get hurt when they did this.
Rajahmundry Chief Conservator of Forests B.N.N. Murthy said that the operation finally stopped the tiger from moving around East Godavari district for six days. The tiger is doing okay. It did not hurt any people the whole time it was moving. The officials said the tiger mainly ate cattle it found near the forests and villages to survive. The tiger had been moving for a time and it is good that the operation brought an end to the tigers movement. The tiger is safe now. It is all because of the operation by Rajahmundry Chief Conservator of Forests B.N.N. Murthy and his team who worked hard to stop the tigers six-day movement, within East Godavari district.
Mr. Murthy was in charge of keeping an eye on the tiger and making sure it did not hurt anyone from the moment it came into Andhra Pradesh. The forest department was watching the tiger all the time to keep people safe and stop them from getting scared in the villages. Mr. Murthy and his team worked hard to make sure the tiger did not cause any problems. The tiger was the concern, for Mr. Murthy and the forest department.
The East Godavari District Forest Officer, B. Prabhakara Rao said that people think two male tigers have left the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. This happened in December 2025. One of these tigers was seen for the time, in the Khammam district of Telangana. It got there after crossing the Pranahitha river. Then the tiger went into the Eluru district of Andhra Pradesh. The tiger is a tiger and it moved from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. The Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve is where the two male tigers were living before they moved out.
On January 29 the tiger went into Papikonda National Park from the Eluru side. The tiger did this. Then it waited for two days. After that the tiger swam across the Godavari river near the Polavaram irrigation project. The tiger did this to enter East Godavari district.
On February 1 the tiger killed three cattle in Torredu village. The tiger reportedly did this. The tiger was moving closer to areas where the tiger would find people. The tiger was getting closer to places, with human population.
The people who take care of the forest said it was really hard to manage the tiger moving such a way. This was because the tiger was going through villages and areas where people grow food. The people from the RESQ Trust in Pune were a help. They gave the forest officials tools to track the tiger. These people worked closely with a team of experts from the National Tiger Conservation Authority. They watched the tigers movement. Made a plan for what to do. The tiger was the thing they were worried about. The National Tiger Conservation Authority team and the RESQ Trust people worked together to make sure the tiger was safe and did not hurt anyone. The tiger movement was very important, to them.
Officials said a decision is yet to be taken on whether the tiger will be shifted to a zoo or a rescue centre. For now, the animal remains under observation and continues to be stable.
