The pugmarks left on the ground surface in Bankura villages corroborate with those of tigers, the senior forest officials ratified after scrutinising today. “We are yet to ascertain whether it was a tiger or a tigress. The pugmarks collected from the soft and wet soil couldn’t suggest about the actual gender of the tiger,” said chief wildlife warden (Central), Rajiv Sharma.
Sharma rushed to Barikul in Ranibandh block in Bankura where the pugmarks were first noticed by the villagers on Saturday. After having stock of the situation, Sharma said: “This area doesn’t fall under tiger command zone, which initially had confused our ground level officials. We, however, need to have more scientific scrutiny to help identifying whether the pugmarks were left by a male or a female tiger.”
At Binpur, in the neighbouring Jhargram district, some pugmarks were visible on the surface on Sunday like those at Khejurkhanya village in Bankura. Sharma said: “We have to tally whether the same tiger shifted to Binpur or it was a different tiger.” The forest department has planned to plant four trap digital cameras to help grabbing the photograph of the tiger.
The cameras are being brought from the Sundarbans, the officials said. Two cages and trained personnel equipped with tranquliser guns have also been assigned to Barikul, Khejurkhanya and Binpur accordingly.
“Our prime ambition is to trap the tiger and arrangements are made for the same. We do not want a repetition of March, 2018 incident where the roaming and scared tiger was trapped and killed by the jungle- villagers,” said Debashis Mahimaprasad Pradhan, divisional forest officer, Bankura (South) today.
“The cameras, we expect will reach Barikul by the late evening hours,” he added. The chief wildlife warden (Central) also took measurements and photographs of the pugmarks today. The officials, meanwhile have inquired about suspicious disappearance of livestock from their courtyard too.