(Watch) Tiger sighted again in this Odisha sanctuary

Bhubaneswar: A Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) was sighted again at Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Sambalpur district of Odisha recently.

The big cat was caught in the camera traps installed in the sanctuary, said sources in the Forest department today.

“The feline animal was caught in the camera traps installed at Debrigarh. It is in a good shape. The tiger usually keeps itself confined to the core area of the sanctuary in the day and comes out at night. It was seen moving on the kutcha road in the sanctuary after evening,” said a source in the Forest department.

The tiger was first spotted at the sanctuary on December 1 last year. A group of tourists had spotted the young sub-adult tiger at the entrance of the sanctuary. It is the first incident in last six years when a tiger was sighted at Debrigarh, sources said.

The big cat was sighted for the second time at the sanctuary, located close to Hirakud dam, in February this year.

The Forest department claimed that the tiger had migrated to Debrigarh from a forest in neigbouring Chhattisgarh. The big cat has made the sanctuary as its second home, added the department.

It is worth mentioning here that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has given its approval to a proposal of the state government to declare Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve.

The Odisha government had proposed to declare Debrigarh as the third tiger reserve in the state after Similipal and Satkosia in 2018.