The tiger, which had strayed into Bengal, is now back in Jharkhand and has been sighted in Ghatshila forest range near Jamshedpur for the last two days.

The presence of the tiger near Basadera forest, close to Kalachitti panchayat, is keeping the forest department and the East Singhbhum district administration on their toes as the site is a favourite picnic spot due to scenic Burudih Dam and Dharagiri waterfalls.

“The district administration and the forest department team are announcing the presence of the tiger near the picnic spots and the nearby villages so that they do not venture after sunset. The forest team is also keeping vigil near the areas. The crowd in Ghatshila have so far been sensible, so we have not imposed prohibitory orders in the area yet,” said Ghatshila sub-divisional officer Sunil Chander.

Jamshedpur divisional forest officer (DFO), Saba Alam Ansari, said that missing cattle have been reported in the Basadera forest area for the last two days.

“We were alerted by the villagers about the presence of the tiger and missing cattle reports. We have installed over 25 trap cameras to capture pictures of the tiger and prepared a pugmark impression pad,” said Ansari.

The Jamshedpur DFO further said that a team of over 50 forest officials from Ghatshila, Mango, Chandil are camping in Ghatshila.

“Based on our information, the tiger had been to Bengal and has now returned to Jharkhand. We believe that it might have come to Chandil either from Palamu Tiger Reserve (in Jharkhand) or Similipal Tiger Reserve (in Odisha),” said Ansari.

Locals refrained from bringing wood to the forest on Wednesday and were cautious. However, Basadera Middle School remained open and the attendance of children was normal.

The forest department team has intensified the search for the tiger in the forests of Basadera, Dharagiri and Burudih.

On Wednesday, 20 cameras were installed in the forest, especially near water sources, so that the movement of the tiger could be tracked. It is being said that the tiger is traveling up to 40-50 kilometers a day.

Forest department ranger Bimal Kumar said that the team is continuously patrolling the forest and searching for the tiger. So far, no camera has captured the tiger’s picture and no incident has happened in the last 24 hours, due to which its exact condition is not known.

The tiger after being sighted in Chandil in Seraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand had sneaked into Bengal from Jharkhand and stayed there 10 days.

Forest department sources said the big cat moved over 300km along three districts namely Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia during its stay in Bengal.

The current location — Basadera — is nearly 70km from Jhargram, Bengal.

Odisha’s tigress Zeenat had followed a similar route to Purulia before entering adjoining Bankura district from Gopalpur.

Later, Zeenat was tranquilised by the Forest department in Bankura and handed over to the authorities of Simlipal Tiger Reserve.