Sighting of Bengal Tiger for the first time in Nainital forest division’s Naina range has raised curiosity of many in the ongoing tiger census drive. The interesting fact here is that presence of wildlife species like the Bengal Tiger in areas with average elevation of 400 meter from the sea level is a routine affair, but presence of it in Naina forest range’s Camel’s Back area which is located above 2,000 meter from the sea level is rare, said the forest officials concerned of the Nainital forest division.
Anticipating movements of the tigers in its certain parts like the Naina range, the Nainital forest division placed a few cameras in Kilbari, Pangut and Camel’s Back areas. The Bengal Tiger which is reported to be male, was captured in one of the cameras in Camel’s Back area only a few days ago, added the officials. Earlier there were reports suggesting that the Bengal Tiger was sighted in some parts of Nainital and its adjacent areas in the past. But it was confirmed for the first time only now when image of a Bengal Tiger was captured in one of the cameras in Camel’s Back area recently, said Manoj Shah, forest ranger of the Nainital forest division, while talking to The Pioneer. It may be recalled that a weeklong tiger census campaign had been started in different forest zones of Uttarakhand from Monday. Though the Nainital forest division has placed a few cameras in its possible tiger dominated areas like the Naina forest range along with its filed survey, in other forest zones of Uttarakhand including the Terai landscape it is a kind of manual tiger census campaign in which foresters of the respective forest divisions are identifying the tiger dominated areas across the Himalayan State. Besides, the foresters deployed to carry out this task are also maintaining a special vigil along the transit lines in different forest divisions to trace the movements of the tiger. They would also depend on the reliable pugmarks to estimate presence of the tiger in different forest zones. After studying the feedback during tiger census campaign, the State-of-the-art cameras will be placed in identified areas to trace the presence of the tigers.