Lalgarh ~ once a hotbed of Maoists activities ~ has now a dreaded visitor: a full grown adult tiger roaming the forest area spreading panic among villagers.

Two of the seven cameras forest officials put up caught the image of the tiger and what had been thought to be a rumor turned out to be true. The people in the villages of Melkheria and Madupur in Lalgarh had complained to forest officials they could sense the presence of a tiger in the forest.

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Initially, the forest officials didn’t believe the villagers and even lodged an FIR for spreading rumor. But, today a full grown adult male tiger was caught by CCTV cameras installed by the forest department on 27 February.

“Some villagers claimed the animal that had taken away their cattle was a tiger, but we did not believe them. Yet, to be sure we put up seven cameras at different locations in Lalgarh. Two of these cameras caught the image of the tiger.

It appears to be between 12 and 15 years,” said Mr Rabindranath Saha, divisional forest officer (Midnapore division). Mr Saha said the villagers had been alerted soon after the tiger was found straying into the forest and they were told not to venture into the forest. Patrolling in the area has also been increased.

Mr Saha said there was no report of the presence of tiger in the locality during the past seven decades. Asked from where the tiger could possibly have entered into Lalgarh, he said : “It is very difficult to answer the question.

We are exploring all possibilities. Camera traps will continue to be there. It might have come from Simlipal tiger reserve in neighboring Odisha”.The DFO said efforts will be made to capture the tiger and send it to Jharkhali in Sundarbans.

Simlipal is the nearest tiger reserve that is around 200 kilometres away from Lalgarh. As per the last census, the total number of tigers in that reserve stood at 26.

Experts ruled out the possibility of the animal straying from the Sunderbans as it is separated by a number of rivers and densely populated human habitations.

But, if it comes from Simplipal, it has crossed two rivers – Subarnarekha and Kangshabati and the national highway-6. Mr Saha said the tiger had killed seven and injured four cattle.

It has not attacked any villagers yet, but the villagers have been asked to be extra cautious after sunset. Mr Saha also said traps would be laid today to catch the animal.