Tiger spotted wandering outside forest department office
A tiger was spotted roaming in front of a Forest Department office inside the Sundarbans.
The tiger was seen wandering the Andharmanik Ecotourism Center in the Chandpai Range of the Sundarbans in Mongla, Bagerhat on Friday afternoon. Forest officials captured footage of the tiger’s movements on their mobile phone cameras.
The Andharmanik centre is located on the southwestern bank of the Shela River. In the video, the tiger can be seen approaching the forest office area beside the river and standing in the open space in front of the office while looking around.
After waiting there for a while, it turns back briefly before walking towards the forest on the northern side.
As part of a plan to develop four new ecotourism centres in the Sundarbans in 2021, various facilities, including a watchtower and foot trails were built in the Andharmanik forest area.
On 13 July, the Forest Department released a tigress in the southern part of the ecotourism centre. Earlier on 4 January, the tigress was rescued in an injured condition after being trapped in a snare near Sharkir Khal under the Baidyamari Forest Camp area. However, it could not be confirmed whether the tiger spotted on Friday was the same tigress.
Dipen Chandra Das, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) of the Sundarbans' Chandpai Range, told Prothom Alo, "It does not appear to be the tigress we released. The stripe patterns suggest it is a different tigress.”
“There is sufficient food in the part of the forest where the previously rescued tigress was released. It is expected that she is having no trouble hunting for food or surviving," he said.
Recently, the Forest Department installed 20 camera traps across an eight-kilometer area in various locations around the Sundarbans. In addition to tigers and spotted deer, these cameras captured images of barking deer, jungle fowl, wild boars, fishing cats, otters and other wildlife.
Besides camera traps, Forest Department officials said their staff members have also been finding more tiger pugmarks than before while conducting patrols in the forest.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Sundarbans East Forest Division Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said tiger movements in the Sundarbans are being noticed more frequently than before.
He said, “Images of three more new tigers have already been identified by the cameras recently installed across the eight-kilometer area of the Sundarbans. One camera was placed in the forest near Sharkir Khal, where the trapped tigress was previously rescued. We recently identified a tiger in that camera as well. This area is very close to human settlements.”