Royal Bengal Tiger spotted in Odisha's Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary
The sighting comes as the state government considers the sanctuary as a potential habitat for translocating big cats from central India.
A Royal Bengal Tiger was spotted by a patrolling team and captured on camera traps in Odisha's Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary on Monday, according to The Indian Express. The sighting is significant as the state government has identified the area as a possible habitat for the proposed translocation of two big cats from central India.
Anshu Pragyan Das, divisional forest officer of Hirakud Wildlife Division, said the tiger is believed to have entered the sanctuary via the Dechuan-Lakhanpur forest corridor. Forest officials traced pugmarks suggesting the animal might have crossed from Chhattisgarh into Odisha.
Das stated that 100 trap cameras have been set up to track the tiger, while 27 teams are conducting daily boundary patrols. She added that three-layer teams have also been assigned to night-time monitoring.
Authorities plan to share camera trap images with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) for analysis. Officials noted that the tiger's stripe pattern will help identify its origin.
This is the second time a Royal Bengal Tiger has been seen in Debrigarh in the last four years. Das mentioned that a big cat previously stayed in the sanctuary for approximately 18 months between 2022 and 2024 before dying in Chhattisgarh's Gomarda sanctuary.
The NTCA gave an in-principle nod in 2023 to the Odisha government's proposal to declare the 804 sq/km Debrigarh area and its surrounding forests a tiger reserve.