The Sikkim forest and environment department has claimed that a royal Bengal tiger and a gaur, photos of which have been recently clicked by trap cameras in the upper reaches of the state, have set new national and world records.

Sources said that the photo of a tiger was clicked at an elevation of 3,966 metres from sea level, making it a national record, and that of a gaur at a height of 3,568 metres, making it a world record.

Sources in the Sikkim forest department said along with the Wildlife Institute of India, they had installed trap cameras in high-altitude regions of the Himalayan state “to understand the impact of climate change on large mammals”.

Recently, as images were retrieved from the trap cameras, multiple pictures of tigers were found in the upper reaches of Kyongnosla and Pangolakha wildlife sanctuaries.

The photo of a gaur clicked by a trap camera at Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in Pakyong district of Sikkim at a height of 3,568 metres from sea level. Pictures courtesy: The government of Sikkim

Kyongnosla is in Gangtok district. Pangolakha, which shares borders with the Neora Valley National Park of Bengal’s Kalimpong, is in Pakyong district.

“In Kyongnosla, the photo of a tiger was clicked at an elevation of 3,966 metres from sea level. This is a national record for tiger sightings at the highest point. It is also the second highest point of tiger sighting across the world after Bhutan,” said a source.

Earlier, in 2019, a tiger was sighted in north Sikkim at a height of 3,602 metres above sea level. Last year, a tiger was clicked at an elevation of 3,640 metres in Pangolakha.

Pictures of a gaur (Indian bison) were observed at an elevation of 3,568 metres at Pangolakha, which sources said, is a world record.

“The presence of gaur at such high altitudes is rare. They mostly stay below 1,800 metres. It is the largest cattle species in the world and endemic to south and southeastern Asia, mostly India. The animal plays a key role in the food chain as a prey for carnivores like the tiger, the common leopard and Asiatic wild dog,” said an expert.

Pictures of the sambar, dhole or wild dog, Himalayan black bear, musk deer and serow, among others, were also found in the trap cameras, which bode well for the Sikkim government’s conservation efforts, said a source.