Tiger sighted in Kedarnath hills in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: A tiger, normally found in the plains, has been sighted for the first time at a height of around 3,400 meters in Uttarakhand's Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary.

The tiger was captured recently by a camera trap at the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary which is home to leopards and snow leopards only, Kedarnath Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Amit Kanwar said.

In 2016 too, a camera trap captured a tiger in the area but the picture quality was not very good. "This time, the picture is very clear," said Kanwar.

"We are still not clear whether the tiger sighted is a male or a female. It is also not clear whether the tiger is a local or migrated to the sanctuary from the plains," said the DFO.

"The Forest Department would take the help of experts from the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to assess the significance of a tiger at such a height and also carry out research work," he added.

Kanwar said in the past a tiger had been found at a height of 3,200 meters in Pithoragarh district.