A tiger is suspected to have sneaked out of a forest in Sunderbans on Thursday before going back again on Friday, said forest officials.

On Thursday, pugmarks were found outside Herobhanga 9 forest compartment as well as another patch of mangrove on the other side of the creek. Herobhanga is a natural forest in Kultali beat while the cover on the other side, that leads to a local embankment, is a result of a plantation drive over the years.

On Friday morning, pugmarks were found again on the reverse track, suggesting
the tiger went back into the forest.

“Herobhanga forest has a nylon net fencing. The tiger must have sneaked out with the help of high tide from an opening at a creek,” said a forest official of South-24 Parganas division.

Tiger pugmarks spotted at another patch of mangrove in the same block. The Telegraph

As the pugmarks were spotted on the mangrove cover on the other side, foresters sprung into action. “The tiger had taken cover in the mangrove patch. The area was cordoned off. The road to the embankment further leads to a series of fisheries. Our aim was to prevent the tiger from moving out of the mangrove cover,” the official said.

A part of the nylon net fencing bordering the Herobhanga forest was kept open. “When we checked around 6am on Friday, there was no pugmark. But around 6.45am, when we checked again, there were fresh pugmarks in the forest,” the official said.

Winter usually sees a rise in tiger-straying incidents in the Sunderbans. Last season was relatively incident-free. But this season has already seen at least three such incidents of straying.

So far, there has been no casualty.