KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Jan 4: Forest department officials are making frantic efforts to trace out a tiger which had reportedly made its presence felt in the Chandil forest range in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district recently.
Bullock killed, tiger’s pug marks found
After a bullock was shockingly found killed and a calf went missing from Chowka jungle in the Chandil forest range, villagers had pressed the alarm bells four days ago, leading the forest department officials to swing into action.
Later, on inspecting the spot where the bullock’s carcass was found lying and in its vicinity, the forest officials found pug marks there.
Conservator of Forest, Saba Alam Ansari visited the spot along with other senior officials and ordered for an extensive search for the tiger there.
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Six surveillance cameras installed
Following the instructions of the Conservator of Forest the Chandil range office on Wednesday installed as many as six surveillance cameras across the forest along the Subernarekha river that flows through the region.
The bullock’s carcass was found lying at Tulgram village, situated amid a cluster of four villages, including Dhunabera and Kurni at the dense forest in Chowka which is about 40 kms away from Jamshedpur. These villages have a population of about 500 people who are dependent mainly on cultivation and earning from the forest produce.
Forest officials certain about tiger presence
Revealing about the update, Chandil forest ranger, Shashi Prakash Ranjan confirmed that the pug marks found at Tulgram were that of a tiger only, but nothing remarkable could be found from the CCTV footage.
“The footages obtained from the surveillance cameras showed presence of jackals and fox only, not of any tiger. But from the pug marks, we are sure that the tiger had definitely come to the forest there. We are, therefore, continuing the search operation intensively,” said the ranger while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
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Search for tiger’s faeces underway
The forest officials are also searching for the faeces of the tiger in the jungle.
“When it comes to the presence of a tiger, its faeces are bound to be found in the vicinity. But as of now nothing as such has been found yet,” Shashi Prakash Ranjan said, adding that they have asked the villagers to remain vigilant.
