Four Tiger Cubs Found In House In Andhra Village, Rescued By Forest Officials. WATCH

A forest official said arrangements were made to reunite the tiger cubs with their mother.

The cubs are aged about three to four months, an Andhra forest official said

Four tiger cubs found at a house in Andhra Pradesh's Nandyal district were rescued by villagers of Pedda Gummadapuram in Atmakur forest division on Monday. To protect the cubs from attacks by wild dogs, the villagers shifted them to a safe place and informed the forest officials. 

The forest officials took the cubs in their control and rushed them to the nearest veterinary hospital for basic medical aid. The cubs are quite healthy and aged about three to four months.

A forest official said arrangements were made to reunite the tiger cubs with their mother. However, fear has gripped the Pedda Gummadapuram village as the villagers believe that the cubs' mother may come to the area in search of her children.

"The tigress is roaming within a radius of 2 km around the area coming under Kothapalli Mandal in Nandyala district," a forest official told PTI.

The officials are now trying to reach out to the tigress in the next 24 or 48 hours and have laid a good number of camera traps. An official said it is not known if their mother abandoned them or would come back to take the cubs back into the jungle.

The four tiger cubs were found in a house at Gummadapuram village in Nandyala district

"In the event, the mother takes the cubs back, it will be a good ending, otherwise the next call would be how to take the situation forward," PTI quoted Shanti Priya Pandey, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife (APCCF, WL), as saying.

"How the cubs reached there is still a bit of an enigma for us. I think the tigress could have been chased by a pack of wild dogs. In a hurry it could have left the cubs," Pandey further said.

The officer said the chances of survival are better for the cubs if they successfully return to the wild than staying in non-wilderness settings.

However, if the officials come to a conclusion that the mother had abandoned them or was not accepting them now, the cubs would be sent to a zoo.