“We have found pug marks in the area. Possibly it is a female tiger. We have put camera traps in the area. So far we could only see some Jackals. However we are hopeful of capturing the tiger,” said Satyajit Singh, chief conservator of forest, Jharkhand.
“We still do not know where it came from. There are various possibilities,” said Singh adding that, “Our quick response teams are making rounds of the area 24 hours, our officials are in the area. We have also alerted the administration and police.”
This sighting comes after the recent handover of Zeenat, a three-year-old female tigress who had escaped from Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve in December and was captured in Bankura district in West Bengal. Zeenat was handed over to Odisha on Tuesday.
According to sources in the forest department, on Tuesday morning a calf was killed by a wild animal and they also found tiger pug marks.
As part of their investigation, Jharkhand forest officials recorded the statement of a young boy who claimed to have seen the big cat. When shown images of tigers and leopards, the boy identified the tiger as the animal he had spotted.
Unlike Zeenat, which was equipped with a radio collar for easy tracking, this new tiger does not have any tracking device, making it difficult for forest department officials to track the animal.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal forest department officials stated that they are yet to be informed of any sighting of a tiger.
On Sunday, Zeenat after 21 days it left Simlipal tiger reserve in Odisha and trekking 300 kilometres, was sedated and captured in Ranibandh area of Bankura by joint operation of Odisha and West Bengal forest department
Zeenat was introduced to Simlipal Tiger Reserve from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra on November 14, as a part of a programme to strengthen the gene pool of tigers in the reserve. Ten days later, the tigress was released to the core area of the reserve.
On December 8, Zeenat wandered out of the reserve and strayed into Jharkhand. After roaming in Jharkhand’s Chakulia area for over a week, Zeenat entered Jhargram in West Bengal.
It then moved to Bandwan in Purulia, and from there to Manbazar in the same district. On Sunday morning, the tigress entered the Ranibandh area in Bankura.
During its trek from Simlipal to Bankura, Zeenat covered over 300 km.