A tiger that was sighted near Adani Power Plant in Butibori area on Wednesday morning by some passersby, has been identified as a 17 months old sub-adult tiger by the Forest Department. The sub-adult tiger killed a bovine in Butibori forest reserve area on Thursday. The Forest Department was continuously monitoring the movement of the tiger from Wednesday afternoon.

 

The department identified it as a new tiger which is likely crossing through the Butibori area from Bor Tiger Reserve (BTR) to Umred Paoni Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary (UPKWS). A social media post got viral on Wednesday in which a person inside a car captured the video of a tiger crossing an unpaved path just one kilometre away from Adani Power Plant in Butibori, which is 37 km away from Nagpur, triggering panic among villagers residing nearby. “The tiger is a 17-month-old sub-adult cub which is new in this region. It killed a cow inside reserve forest and to monitor its movement, we have installed three camera traps near the kill,” Pramod Wade, RFO, Butibori told The Hitavada. The Forest Department also identified the pugmarks of the tiger and it is new in the region.

 

“The tiger is likely to stay in the forest for some time as it has made a kill and we are continuously monitoring the big cat,” said Wade. Such sighting is not new in Butibori industrial area as the Butibori extension acts as a corridor for tigers moving between Bor and UPKWS, resulting in frequent, sometimes dangerous, proximity to human habitation. Although there is history of tigers’ presence in the area as many tigers use the corridor, sometime tigers venture close to human habitat. There are around four villages situated close to the sighting area and the villagers are in panic mode after the aforementioned video went viral.