Hyderabad: Ibrahimpur village, on the outskirts of Yadagirigutta, has slipped into a tense silence after a tiger killed a calf on its fringes, an incident that villagers say has revived memories of a time nearly five decades ago, when big cats last roamed these surrounding forests.For many elderly residents, the attack has brought back stories from their youth. Men now in their seventies recall that tigers once moved through the forested tracts near Ibrahimpur but rarely ventured close to homes. They preyed on stray calves, avoided people, and disappeared when villagers gathered in groups and raised a commotion.Those memories resurfaced early Saturday when a tiger attacked cattle tied near farmland at the edge of a forested hillock on the village outskirts. A team led by district forest officer Sudhakar Reddy arrived at the spot and shifted the carcass to a veterinary hospital, where doctors confirmed that the kill was made by a tiger.“The tiger dragged away the smaller calf and left the larger one, which weighed around 40 kg,” Sudhakar Reddy said. “The calf it carried away would be about 20 kg, enough to sustain the animal for at least three days.”Villagers say the incident feels eerily familiar. Yerolla Agamallu, around 70, said he had seen similar attacks when he was a teenager. “When we grazed cattle in the forest, tigers would sometimes kill calves,” he said. “But they never entered the village or harmed people. If a group of men gathered, waved sticks and made loud sounds, the tiger would retreat.”For others, this is the first such encounter in a lifetime. Bariga Venkataiah, a forest watcher at the Ibrahimpur reserve forest for over 25 years, said he had never seen a tiger here before. “My father used to tell me that tigers moved in these forests when he was young,” he said. “In all my years, I have seen foxes, wild boars and rabbits — never a tiger.”The attack has changed daily life in Ibrahimpur. Residents who once stayed outdoors late into the night now shut their doors by 6.30 or 7 pm. Farm work is being wrapped up before dark, and cattle are being brought closer to homes wherever possible.Nagaram Narasimha, a farmer from the village, said those who keep cattle at distant fields are working in groups and lighting campfires at night to deter wild animals. “They guard the cattle till about 11 pm, return home, and come back again before dawn to relight the fires,” he said. Youngsters who earlier gathered at the village junction or travelled to nearby towns at night are now staying indoors. Shepherds have begun shifting their flocks to the far side of the village, though grazing land there is limited.The impact has been felt even among the cattle. The calf’s owner, Maturi Bhanu Prakash, said the mother cow has barely eaten since the attack. “She looks frightened and deeply disturbed,” he said.
