KOLKATA: Within four days of a driver clicking picture of the first Royal Bengal tiger in Neora Valley National Park in Kalimpong subdivision of Darjeeling district in West Bengal, another aged male big cat was captured in a trap camera lens placed by the forest department in the area. Four trap cameras were strategically placed after a young male tiger was pictured by driver Anmol Chhetri behind a rock by the road near Lava in Darjeeling district on January 19.
The second picture was clicked by one of the trap cameras at around 8.30 pm on January 23 in the 3 km forest area between Algara and Lava in the district. The recent picture was discovered by forest guards while inspecting the camera chip during a patrol on January 25.
The finding was made public on Saturday. “The picture has been verified. The one clicked by driver Anmol Chhetri was aged between 12-13 years and was a male.
The one clicked by the trap camera is also a male but is bigger in size and more aged than the one pictured earlier,” a forest official told Express. Excited by the possibility of more tigers in the vast forested regions of north Bengal, the forest department now plans to install more than 200 trap cameras in not only Neora Valley National Park but also in other forests of the region such as Gorumara National Park, Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary, Singalila National Park and Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, according to conservator of forests (northern circle) Sumita Ghatak. However, the forest officials are also wary of man v/s animal conflict in the buffer zone villages.
The officials have received a number of complaints of lost cattle in the past few days. Three half-eaten cows have also been found in Neora Valley, sources revealed. On the other hand, pictures of tigers in the area have also led to flurry of tourists to the national park. Being the only virgin forest in West Bengal, tourists are prohibited from entering the Neora Valley National Park and forest officials are planning strict measures to ensure the prohibition.
Sources revealed that pug marks and excreta of around 18 tigers were found in a 2013 survey in 88 sq km of the total 160 sq km area of Neora Valley but were never pictured. The recent pictorial evidences have emboldened demands to declare the national park as tiger reserve.