Purulia tiger may have walked 500 km from Chhattisgarh via Jharkhand’s Palamu
Times of India | 24 January 2025
KOLKATA: The Purulia tiger — the first photographic evidence from the district — may have traversed from Jharkhand’s Palamau Tiger Reserve, located around 400 km away.
Officials from both states indicated that while official validation from National Tiger Conservation Authority was pending, the movement is feasible as tigers utilise existing elephant corridors through Gumla, Bandgaon and Chandiul-Gamharia range.
If indeed the same tiger, sources said in Apr 2024 it was photographed in Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur (part of Guru Ghasidas National Park landscape), located around 500 km from Purulia’s Bandwan where the feline was recently documented. Subsequently, it was reportedly clicked in a camera trap in Palamau in May-June 2024.
Sources at NTCA tiger cell said that an official communication has been sent to Palamau authorities, as the photos were sent by them.
Deputy director of Palamau Tiger Reserve Brajesh Jena said: “We have the photographs of the tiger clicked in Purulia and forwarded them to NTCA-WII. However, we await confirmation regarding its identity.”
He elaborated that the Bandhavgarh-Sanjay-Guru Ghasidas-Palamau-Dalma landscape spanning Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand enables tiger movement towards both Odisha and southern West Bengal.
Sources revealed that the all-India database with NTCA tiger cell — containing unique photo IDs of tigers nationwide, like Aadhaar details — holds records of three male tigers from Palamau. “Stripe patterns of one male corresponded with this tiger,” a source said on condition of anonymity.
In March 2024, another tiger, first documented in MP’s Sanjay National Park, was spotted in Palamau and subsequently in Odisha’s Bonai division. Officials confirmed its current location in Similipal National Park’s buffer zone.
Before this, a young male was also documented in Palamau, aged approximately 3 years, whose movements remain untracked post-Palamau sighting.
The third is the Balrampur tiger, subsequently photographed in Palamau and presumably now in Purulia.
Kumar Ashutosh, field director of Palamau, confirmed photographic evidence of 4-5 male tigers. “Scat samples from another tiger, analysed in Hyderabad, identified a female presence. From zero tigers in 2018, we’ve been monitoring movements via cameras since March 2023,” he said.
Bengal’s chief wildlife warden Debal Roy confirmed sending Purulia tiger photographs to Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Tigers from Palamau typically traverse via Gumla to Khijri, approaching jumbo corridor near Bandgaon. “From there, they move either towards Chandil and Purulia’s Ayodhya Hills or towards Bandwan via Dalma,” Ashutosh added.