Avenger, Marathwada’s lone tiger, prowls back into focus after 18 months

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: After vanishing from camera traps for nearly 18 months, Avenger, Marathwada’s lone tiger, has resurfaced in Beed district’s Ashti taluka, offering fresh proof of the big cat’s remarkable journey across five districts and hundreds of kilometres in search of a territory of its own.The tiger was captured on a forest department trap camera placed near a village where it had killed a cow. Officials had installed the camera after finding pugmarks in the area and suspecting the animal would return to the carcass.“Pugmarks were found in remote parts of Ashti taluka. After killing cattle during the day, the tiger returned to the kill in the early hours of Aug 20,” range forest officer Amol Munde said.The sighting is the first confirmed camera-trap record of Avenger since Feb 2025. For forest officials, the photograph is more than just another sighting. It is fresh evidence of a journey that has seen Avenger traverse hundreds of kilometres across Marathwada after leaving his birth habitat at Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal.The male tiger had entered Marathwada from the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal and was first spotted in Dharashiv district in Dec 2024. Since then, forest officials say, it has been steadily moving through parts of Dharashiv, Latur, Solapur, Ahilyanagar and Beed.According to the forest department, Avenger has been roaming within a range of around 100km from the Yedshi Ramling Wildlife Sanctuary landscape, following a natural instinct seen among young tigers seeking new territories.“The tiger is surviving largely on natural prey such as deer, wild boar and nilgai, though there have been occasional incidents of cattle kills. Despite roaming for nearly 20 months, it has rarely been seen by locals, and there has not been a single case of human-animal conflict,” Munde said.“It is natural for young tigers to leave their birth territory and look for a new one. Avenger left Tipeshwar and is moving through the Yedshi Ramling landscape and surrounding areas. We cannot predict where he will finally settle. He may or may not return to Tipeshwar,” Munde said.The forest department has urged villagers not to panic and to follow basic precautions in areas where the tiger may be present.“People should travel in groups in remote areas, make moderate noise while passing through dense vegetation and avoid forest and fringe areas during early morning, late evening and night when tigers are most active,” Munde said.