Bhubaneswar: The Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) that was recently spotted roaming in Rayagada block of Odisha’s Gajapati district and some parts of Andhra Pradesh, Pradesh has travelled nearly 750 km from Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region.
This was informed by Odisha Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Sushant Nanda on Saturday.
Though the wildlife experts are surprised to see a tiger travelling such a long distance, they believe that the animal might have taken such an arduous journey in search of safer habitat and mate.
PCCF Nanda said, “The Wildlife Institute of India has the databases, stripes of all the tigers trapped in our cameras. Like our fingerprints, the stripes on a tiger’s body are unique too.”
“When we captured the tiger in our cameras in Odisha, we sent the pictures of the stripes to the Wildlife Institute of India for identification. They identified this tiger as the first camera-trapped at Brahmapuri forest division under Maharashtra’s Chandrapur in 2021. Though the feline has traversed 750km now, it has crossed many more distances before, as suggested by its pictures,” Nanda said.
“It is a good sign for us that the tiger population is increasing and they are migrating to where they can find more food,” he added.
The forest department on Wednesday confirmed the presence of a Royal Bengal Tiger 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 photographs of the predator.
Though the Maharashtra tiger’s tracked history says it has preyed on deer and wild boar, of late it is killing livestock for survival. However, it has reportedly not shown any aggression towards humans though it passes through human habitations.
