A tiger that had been roaming in Garhwa district, Jharkhand, for the last 15 days has reportedly changed its location and entered the Latehar district. This area is part of the Palamu Tiger Reserve, which is adjacent to both Palamu and Garhwa districts.
Locals have observed that the tiger has started hunting cattle since it entered the new area.
In response, the forest department has issued a high alert, and surveillance in the region has been intensified. Samples of the tiger’s pug marks are being collected, and tracking cameras have been set up to monitor its movements.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the tiger is an adult and is hunting for food. Over the last 15 days, it has killed more than half a dozen cattle in Garhwa district.
"Samples of scat and pug marks have been sent to the Wildlife Institute for examination. After analysis, we will know whether this is the seventh tiger in the Palamu Tiger Reserve or an older one," said Kumar Ashutosh, Director of the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR).
In the past one and a half years, the movements of five tigers and one tigress have been recorded in the Palamu Tiger Reserve, a protected area for tigers. These tigers have been frequently changing their locations and roaming across the areas of Palamu, Garhwa, and Latehar.
After a decade of very limited tiger activity, the movement of tigers has notably increased in the Palamu Tiger Reserve. A tiger census conducted in 2018 had reported no tigers in the reserve at that time.
The Palamu, Garhwa, and Latehar districts all fall within the Palamu Tiger Reserve, which is connected to the Bandhavgarh and Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
According to officials at Palamu Tiger Reserve, all the tigers in the region are linked to the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. There is a distance of approximately 400 km between Palamu Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, with a tiger corridor connecting the two reserves.
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