Forest officials of Purulia have traced the presence of a leopard in the Raika Hills in Bandwan, while searching for the Royal Bengal tiger. A tigress Zeenat from Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha had intruded the Raika forest hills recently, and later another male tiger from Odisha was sighted.

Purabi Mahato, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Kangsabati South Forest Division said that the forest department is now sure of a presence of a leopard in the hills in Bandawan. It seems that this green cover has become a refuge of various species of big cats.

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“We didn’t know about it earlier, but after tracing Zeenat we came to know the presence of other big cats in this area. Presently, we are concentrating on the tiger which has sneaked in, in search of its companion, Zeenat, who has already been captured by the forest department and sent back to Similipal. After which we will start putting trap cameras on various parts of the hills to spot the leopard,” she added.

Already the leopard has killed street dogs and half eaten carcasses of goats have been found in the forest areas.

The forest cover in Bandawan is spread over an area of 2,500 hectares and the Raika Hills is 1,544 feet above sea level making it a very difficult terrain to work for the forest workers. It was due to the radio collar systems that the movement and presence of Zeenat could be traced by the forest officials, but stray tigers, leopards, hyenas are very tough to locate inside the buffer zone of the deep forests, a safe refuge of the big predators.

The forest department has started miking and alerting the local people about the movements of the big cats in the forests.

In Tatuara forests under Kotshila Forest Range on 20 June 2015, a leopard was lynched by the villagers and hanged from a tree. That was the first time a leopard was located in Purulia district. The incident rocked the nation at that time.

With the increase in forest cover, a leopard couple had sneaked in from neighbouring Jharkhand and had started staying in the forests in Purulia with their cubs.

The forest department trap cameras spotted them at that time. Purulia district has already registered the highest growth in forest cover in the state as per the data of the Union ministry of environments, forests and climate control.

There are Indian striped hyenas, grey wolves, golden jackals, leopards and possibly now tigers in the forests of Purulia. Forest officials have already collected the pug marks of big cats, found in the forests.