Forest department confirms presence of adult tiger in Lalgarh

A full grown adult male tiger has sneaked into the forest of Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, possibly from neighbouring Odisha, a top forest official said on Friday.

The people in surrounding villages were alerted and villagers have been asked not to venture into the forest while forest personnel have increased patrolling, R N Saha, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Midnapore range said.

He said that a few cameras were installed inside the forest following reports of killing of cattles recently.

“One of the cameras captured four images of a full grown adult male tiger early this morning,” he said.

Saha said earlier there was no report of presence of tiger in that area.

Asked from where the tiger could have possibly sneaked into Lalgarh, he said, “It is very difficult to say. We are exploring all possibilities.

Camera traps will continue to be there. One of the possibilities is that the tiger mmight have come from Simlipal tiger reserve in neighbouring Odisha”.

The DFO said efforts will be made to capture the tiger and send it to Jharkhali in Sundarbans.

On whether the tiger killed the cattle inside the villages, he said that the 7 cattles were killed when they had gone into the forest from surrounding villages.