Tiger crosses into West Bengal's Jhargram forest personnel on alert

    Kolkata, Jan 13 (PTI) Forest officials in West Bengal are on their toes again after a tiger crossed into Jhargram district from the neighbouring Jharkhand a day ago, a senior forest official said Monday.
    Another big cat which had been frequently coming back to Maipith village near the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve for the past one week, was caged and released deep inside the core area during the day.
    In Jhargram, fresh pug marks have been spotted around two weeks after a tigress from Odisha was captured in Bankura. The tigress had strayed into West Bengal from the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha.
    This time it is a full-grown male Royal Bengal Tiger which is now at Maniardi jungles in the Kankrajhore forest belt and we are keeping tabs on its movement, Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Roy told PTI.
    "We are waiting for it to settle down as it has been roaming around in the forested parts of Jharkhand for the past couple of days," Roy said.
    "Going by the pugmarks we have confirmed it is now camping at a forested stretch in Kankrajhore. Our team from the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve and forest personnel from Jhargram are monitoring its movement and conduct," he said.
    To a question on whether the department has begun putting up nylon fencing around the forested stretch, he said, "Yes our men fenced the part adjacent to Bagdoba village to restrict its movement within the forest corridor and prevent it from coming near human habitation."
    Meanwhile, forest personnel have set up trap door cages with cattle as baits for the big cat.
    But it has not shown any signs of coming near the cages so far.
    Around 40 trap cameras have also been installed in the area while drone surveillance is being done as the tiger.
    It is believed to have strayed from the Palamu forested stretch of Jharkhand and does not belong to any Tiger project of Odisha.
    The locals, residing within a range of around 5 km of area in the Belpahari-Kakrajhor belt, have been asked not to venture into the forested stretches, not to move far away from their homes after dusk and to see that their cattle do not move into the forest.
    The administration declared suspension of classes at a primary school in Bagdoba village during the day.
    The latest incident of crossing over of the tiger into Jhargram follows the capture of another big cat in Bankura forests on December 29.
    Tigress Zeenat had strayed into West Bengal from Odisha on December 9 and kept forest officials of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal on tenterhooks for 21 days.
    In the other development, the Royal Bengal Tiger, which had strayed from the Sunderbans into Maipith by swimming across the Thakuran River about one week ago, was caged by the forest department officials early on Monday and released deep inside the core tiger reserve area.
    The big cat, which was trapped only after keeping a cattle as bait in the cage, had on the past two occasions returned to its habitat on the other side of the river on being chased by locals and forest personnel.
    But it kept returning back to the area which triggered panic, a senior official of Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve said.
    "The tiger was checked by a veterinary doctor and is in perfect health," the Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve official said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)