The photo of a royal Bengal tiger was recently captured by a trap camera installed in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Alipurduar district, soon after foresters found the pugmarks of the big cat in the reserve area.

On Friday, senior officials of the BTR shared the photo of the tiger that was clicked at night. This is the second time in the past two years that a tiger’s photo has been clicked in Buxa. Two years back, another photo was clicked in the BTR.

On December 21, some on-duty forest guards found pugmarks on the bank of a stream that flows through the BTR. Foresters reached the spot and after analysing the pugmarks, they confirmed that those were of a male tiger.

This made them install some more trap cameras in the reserve area and soon, they got the results.

“Recently, a new image of a tiger was captured in the Buxa Tiger Reserve. The image shows that it is a full-grown tiger and was moving through the forests of the Pana range. The continuous presence of the royal Bengal tiger, as is evident from the photos shot in cameras during the past two years, shows improvement of the reserve area as a tiger habitat. It is good news for us and we are taking all possible precautions for the conservation of the tiger and the reserve area,” said Apurba Sen, the field director of the BTR.

A few days ago, officers of the Gorumara wildlife division had shared two photos of royal Bengal tiger which were clicked in the Neora Valley National Park in Kalimpong district. The photos were taken at Rachela Danda, an area in the pristine forest located at a height of 10,509 feet from the sea level.

Buxa, foresters said, is located in a strategic area and shares a border with the forests of Assam and Bhutan.

They said as it was planned to reintroduce tigers in the BTR as the species was not sighted in the reserve for decades, the initiative to develop a prey base has worked.

“We have released more than 1,000 deer into the BTR's new grassland. This has worked,” said Sen.