E-Paper
Camera traps installed in Manipur village to capture tiger’s image
Several people have claimed to have seen a tiger in Manipur’s Tamenglong district in the past few years but it has not been backed with evidence.
Manipur forest officials have installed two camera traps to capture images of the suspected tiger, which reportedly mauled three cows to death at a remote border village on July 6.
The traps have been set at Kuilong part II village under Tamei subdivision, located about 200 km northwest of Imphal in Manipur’s Tamenglong district bordering Nagaland in the north and Assam in the west, where the dead cows and footprints of the wild animal were found by the villagers.
On seeing the shape and size of the pugmarks found, the divisional forest officer (DFO) Kh Hitler of Tamenglong district concluded that it was a tiger. “The pugmarks were 15X15 sq cm which is bigger than that of leopards (7.5/7.5 sq cm),” he said. The DFO is currently camping at the Kuilong Part II village to investigate the killings as was announced by the state forest and environment minister Awangbow Newmai.
“As the footprint of the wild animal was around 7 inches, we’re suspecting it could be a tiger,” Awangbow said. “There are also reports of cows getting killed in the same village area last year.”
Several people have claimed to have seen a tiger in Tamenglong district in the past few years but it has not been backed with evidence. Also, there was no footage of tiger recorded in the first ever tiger survey conducted in the forest of Tamenglong and Senapati districts in 2019.
