Bhubaneswar: The Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT), which was recently spotted roaming in Odisha’s Gajapati district, has travelled over 750 km from Maharashtra and passed through several states.
Forest department officials are of the opinion that the big cat travelled the long distance to reach Gajapati district apparently in search of a safe habitat and mate.
According to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) of Odisha Sushant Nanda, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has the databases, stripes of all the tigers trapped in our cameras. Like fingerprints of human beings, the stripes on a tiger’s body are also unique.
When the tiger was captured in cameras in Odisha, the pictures of the stripes were sent to the WII for identification. They identified this tiger as the first camera-trapped at Brahmapuri forest division under Maharashtra’s Chandrapur in 2021, he said.
The pictures suggest that though the feline has travelled around 750 km now, it must have crossed many more distance before.
It seems, the tiger has come from Maharashtra to Odisha travelling almost 2,000 km and covering four states — Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, another forest official said.
Describing it as a good sign, forest department officials said the tiger population is increasing and they are migrating to places where they can find more food and suitable territory.
The forest department had on Wednesday confirmed the presence of a RBT in Rayagada block of Gajapati district bordering Andhra Pradesh after the movement of the big cat was captured by trap cameras.
As per reports, the forest department officials found the pugmarks of the tiger and also recovered the carcass of a cow. In order to confirm the presence of the tiger, they installed five trap cameras in the area and the cameras captured the photographs of the predator.
Residents of Analabara village had panicked after the tiger mauled a cow to death. However, Forest department officials have appealed to the people not to remain in panic and to follow the advice of the forest officials.
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