ROURKELA: As many as 30 trap cameras have been installed in Hemgir forest range to ascertain if the population of black panther has grown in Sundargarh forest division.
Recently, villagers venturing into Garjanpahar reserve forest of Hemgir for firewood had claimed spotting a black panther with its cub. Accordingly, two junior research fellows, B Rath and N Palei, in the office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest-Wildlife (PCCF-WL) and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) visited the Grajanpahar forest and installed 30 trap cameras at strategic locations of the Hemgir range on Tuesday.
Earlier, trap cameras had captured image of an adult black panther in Garjanpahar reserve forest in May 2018 and the office of the PCCF-WL and CWLW Sandeep Tripathy had confirmed it.
Sundargarh DFO, AK Mishra said they have evidence of the presence of a black panther, but there is no camera image of its cub yet. He said the image of a Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) was also captured in a trap camera installed in Lefripara forest, about 15 km inside Sundargarh district border. Image of the same tiger was also captured in Raigarh forest division of adjacent Chhattisgarh.
He said some months back, a cow was killed by the tiger while in March this year a village youth passing through the Lefripara forest with his cow and calf had a close brush with the RBT. Mishra claimed the youth was moving at a distance from his cattle when he saw the tiger positioning itself to hunt the calf. The youth hid behind a narrow tree but the tiger spotted him. When it tried to attack him, the youth escaped after screaming. The RBT was probably confused and did not follow him or his cattle, Mishra added.
He said about 90 trap cameras were earlier fixed at strategic locations of Hemgir, Lefripara and Gopalpur ranges of the Sundargarh forest division and they had captured images of 26 different varieties of mammals.