M F AHMED
Daltonganj, Oct 29: Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) officials have rushed 5 trap cameras to Kharcha hillock near Jobang police station in the Latehar forest division. This action was taken after a government doctor, Dr P Kumar posted in the Kharcha primary health centre, claimed to have seen a tiger or tigress on the intervening night of Wednesday / Thursday.
Deputy Director (South Division) of the Palamu tiger reserve, Mukesh Kumar said that he was informed by forest guards about the sighting of a tiger or tigress there. As the locale is not of Palamu tiger reserve but in the Latehar forest division, he sent in 5 trap cameras to be installed in the forest to capture the animal’s presence and movement of the tiger or tigress.
The PTR official declined to make any comment on this claimed sighting of the tiger saying, “We need to have something more to prove its presence like its kill, pug marks, scratch on the bark of trees, roaring, and smell of urination and scat etc.”
The officer-in-charge of the Jobang police station, Gautam Kumar Yadav, said, “A government doctor, Dr. P Kumar, of the primary health centre has told me that he has sighted a tiger or tigress on the intervening night of Wednesday / Thursday. I just asked the doctor to be careful if there is really any tiger or tigress lurking around.”
Dr. P Kumar in this regard said, “On the intervening night of Wednesday / Thursday, around 9 pm, I was having my dinner in my room when our primary health centre security guard came shouting that I should get out of my room. I came out and in the light of the cell phone of my security guard, I saw a tiger and I vouch for it.”
He further said, “Local patients have begun to tell me now that a tiger often appears in this area which I have also seen.”
Mukesh Kumar said, “We will be happy if its presence or movement is established in our trap cameras. Let our trap cameras record its image first.”
