Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan; the pantheon of explorers has just been enriched — by a beast looking for its beauty.

A Royal Bengal Tiger has walked a 700km-plus marathon from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha, via Chhattisgarh, possibly in search of a mate and territory.

The tiger travelled from the Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh to the dense forests of Bonai division under the mineral-rich Sundergarh district, overcoming various obstacles, including poachers, mines and human habitats.

Officials said the tiger had covered over 700km as it mostly traversed through various forest ranges, avoiding highways and human habitats as far as it could to reach Odisha’s Bonai.

The big cat’s strides have been captured by multiple trap cameras installed for the tiger census in various forests of Bonai.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has confirmed the tiger’s migration by matching its stripes with its database.

Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Odisha, Susanta Nanda wrote on X: “Happy to share that one tiger has been camera trapped in Sundergarh district almost after two decades. Tiger Cell of NTCA confirmed it to have migrated out of the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve. Must have travelled a few hundred miles to carve out its own territory in Odisha. Welcome.”

A senior wildlife official said: “A tiger mostly moves to distant places for mating purposes. Despite Bonai being a mining area, the tiger reached here. Earlier, this part of the forest was connected to the Satkoshia Tiger Forest Division in Angul and the Similipal Tiger Reserve forest in Mayurbhanj through different tiger corridors. However, because of development and mining work, the corridor has become fragmented. But, tigers still use this route.”

Another wildlife official said: “Sometimes, a tiger moves to establish its territory where it will have a good prey base. A full-grown tiger tries to identify its own territory, which is generally from 22sqkm to 50sqkm depending on its might and prowess.”

Divisional forest officer (Bonai) Lalit Kumar Patra told The Telegraph: “It is for the first time that tiger footage has been captured in the Bonai division’s
Toda Reserve Forest that spreads across Barusuan Koida ranges covering 15,722 hectares. Previously there were some tiger sighting claims, but they were not backed by scientific or pictorial records.”

Sundergarh in western Odisha is known for its flora and fauna. In 2022, a young adult tiger walked into the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Bargarh district from Chhattisgarh and settled there for almost a year. It returned to Chhattisgarh in January 2024.

“Tigers move from one place to another either for mating or a good prey base. In November 2023, a male tiger from Tadoba of Maharashtra travelled 2,000km across four states and reached the Mahendragiri range in Odisha. Then, it went back,” said an official.