The same Raika hillock, where tigress Zeenat had taken shelter for days in December 2024 is turning out to be a safe haven for the Palamau tiger. It seems the tiger from Jharkhand’s Palamu district too is resting under the dense forest cover.
The tiger’s fresh pugmarks were traced in the farmlands of Kesra, Laopal villages, besides Beldungri water stream, close to the Raika hills. “In Boro, Nekra hamlets close to the Jharkhand border fresh pugmarks were found,” said a forest official a couple of days back.
The tiger meanwhile continued to escape the high-tech infrared beams radiated by dozens of trap cameras, hundreds of pairs of eyes of the forest experts and finally slipped into the Raika forests.
Forest department personnel remained busy exercising every possible arrangement to get a single photo of the big cat with planting trap cameras, smart camcorders along the jungle corridor linking Jhargram with Purulia. One official said: “The tiger hasn’t yet been clicked.” Chief conservator of forests (central) Dr S Kulandaivel said: “Altogether, we’ve planted 75 cameras alongside five trap cages with live baits along the jungle corridor. The tiger is likely lodged in Raika areas and our efforts are concentrated on that side only.”
The Raika hillock area, covered by jungles, has undulating terrains and some caves where Zeenat rested, taking advantage of the odd geographical design.
Some pugmarks in Jamunagora, barely 2 km from Jharkhand border, were detected on Monday, which however had hinted about a possible return journey of the tiger that had moved to Banspahari in Jhargram from Jharkhand through Purulia on Sunday. An official said: “The footprints showed the animal’s southward movement. So, it’s possible that the tiger is on its return journey to Jharkhand.” But, the senior foresters didn’t subscribe to the same view, saying: “It’s a very challenging task this time as the tiger doesn’t have any radio collar for easy detection. So, we won’t speculate and are extra cautious.”
The Jharkhand officials too were clueless about the big cat’s movement. The divisional forest officer, Jamshedpur, Saba Alam Ansari, said, “We’d recorded its last footprints four days ago in the eastern Dalma areas suggesting its direction towards Bengal. No fresh pugmarks about its return were gathered as yet.”
A divisional forest officer said, “The search team assigned to explore the woods had returned empty handed. They didn’t get any sight of the tiger and also no fresh pugmarks were found there.” The jungle patch on the lateritic soil has less dust bed and that’s possibly the reason why the soft-pad big cat’s footprints were not marked on the surface.
The DFO, Jhargram, Umar Imam, the other day hinted that it’s a male tiger. The foresters measured the pugmark as 14 cm x 15 cm. The local primary school teacher at Mainardi in Banspahari, Premanand Murmu and jungle residents Labanath Hansda, Dhiren Murmu, who went to collect ant eggs from the jungle, claimed that they’d seen the tiger walking alone between Maniardi and Chitamati forests.
The tiger traversed through Gobarbhusi forest patch of East Dalma in Jamdih of Jharkhand and Gangamanna area in Jhargram on Sunday wee hours and moved southwards to the Raika hillock in Bandwan in Purulia. Officials assumed it then crossed Mayurjharna elephant project to reach Banspahari forests where the foresters had found scratch marks and excreta of the animal, a few days back. “It’s following the same route of tigress Zeenat but from the reverse direction,” estimated another forest official.