SAMBALPUR: A tiger has been directly sighted and captured on camera trap by patrolling staff in the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, bringing cheer to the protected area which is awaiting its tiger reserve status.
Spotted on Monday morning, the big cat, believed to be a male, appears to have accessed the sanctuary through Dechuan-Lakhanpur forest corridor from neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
While the sighting has been confirmed by the Forest department, the tiger’s origin, gender, age and other identifying details will be established after a detailed analysis of the camera-trapped photographs by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Divisional forest officer (Wildlife) Anshu Pragyan Das said the camera-trapped images are being closely monitored and will be subjected to stripe-pattern analysis to ascertain the tiger’s gender, age and other details.
Forest officials said around 100 camera traps have been installed across the sanctuary to monitor wildlife movement. Besides, 27 teams undertake daily patrolling along the sanctuary’s boundaries and designated trails, while night surveillance is carried out through a three-tier patrolling mechanism to strengthen protection.
This is the third instance of a tiger being sighted in Debrigarh since 2018. The previous tiger had occupied the landscape for approximately one-and-a-half years between 2022 and 2024 before moving into Gomarda Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh.
The latest sighting assumes significance amid state government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its tiger conservation network. A proposal to declare Debrigarh an 804-sq-km tiger reserve, comprising the sanctuary’s 353-sq-km core and a surrounding buffer area, has received in-principle approval from NTCA but the final notification is still awaited.
Located in Bargarh district, Debrigarh makes a strong pitch as a healthy habitat for large carnivores given its ecological indicators. Following the voluntary relocation of all villages from within the sanctuary between 2021 and 2022, nearly 350 sq km of core habitat has been rendered free of permanent human habitation, providing an extensive, relatively undisturbed landscape for wildlife.
The sanctuary also supports a diverse herbivore population comprising sambar, chital, wild boar and gaur, offering a robust prey base for tigers. Sitting next to Hirakud reservoir, the sanctuary boasts of a varied landscape of dry deciduous and sal forests, bamboo vegetation, grasslands, meadows and valleys.
Similarly, scientific grassland restoration, habitat improvement, strengthened anti-poaching measures, intensive foot patrolling and camera-trap surveillance have further improved the sanctuary’s conservation potential. Its geographical location also offers potential connectivity with tiger-bearing forests of Central India, facilitating natural dispersal across state boundaries.
Debrigarh is no stranger to tigers. The 2004 tiger census had estimated the presence of five tigers. A big cat was sighted in 2018 and more recently, a dispersing male tiger from the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh was recorded in Debrigarh in December 2022.
