By Our Reporter
A Bengal tiger has been photographed at an elevation of 3,165 metres by a camera set up in a forest in Ilam district, in eastern Nepal.
Never before has a tiger been sighted at this altitude.
The Royal Bengal Tiger, the largest of all Asian big cats, was captured on November 13, 2020, and November 21, 2020, at 3,165 meters by a camera trap set up in a forest in Ilam district, according to the Department of Forest and Soil Conservation (DoFSC).
This sighting signifies the importance of high-altitude forest in the mountains as a habitat for these endangered big cats.
Dr. Dinesh Neupane, programme director at the Resource Himalaya Foundation and wildlife expert, said that it was the country’s highest-ever recorded tiger sighting and the very first photographic evidence in the mountain of eastern Nepal, and stressed on further research on how and where the tiger came from.
The DoFSE, in a statement, said that the record of tiger seen in Ilam district was from among the eight species — including leopard, clouded leopard, snow leopard, Asiatic golden cat, leopard cat, jungle cat and marbled cat — found in the Kangchenjunga Landscape (KL).
The images were captured by one of the 20 cameras equipped with GPS-satellite collars in the KL that was set up to monitor ten wild red pandas, said Neupane.
RPN, in collaboration with the DoFSC and the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), has been monitoring red pandas in Ilam district since last year. The highest reported elevation records of the Bengal tigers are 3,630 meters at Dibang valley in Arunchal Pradesh, India, and 4,038 meters in Bhutan. The species’ highest recent elevation record was from Dadeldhura district, Nepal (2,500 meters).
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