Tiger pugmarks were found on a char of the Bhola river at Sonatala village in Sharankhola upazila of Bagerhat, beside the Sundarbans, on Monday morning. A village fisherman spotted the tracks before stepping into the river to fish. As the news spread, fear gripped the village and warnings were broadcast from the mosque loudspeaker.
According to the Forest Department, the Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT) and local residents, the tracks show the tiger swam across the Bhola and came ashore near the village's water ghat. It then walked 500 to 600 metres north along the bank before going back into the river. An embankment and homesteads lie right next to where the tracks were found.
Abdul Latif Howlader, a VTRT member in Sonatala, said he alerted the Forest Department and the VTRT after seeing the tracks at the ghat, and they confirmed a tiger had been there. Md Zakaria Hossain, the VTRT team leader for the area, said the pugmarks ran for about half a kilometre along the char and the tiger appears to have headed back towards the Sundarbans. Villagers, however, remain uneasy about whether it has fully returned to the forest.
Md Shariful Islam, assistant conservator of forests (ACF) of the Sharankhola range of the Sundarbans East Forest Division, visited the spot. He believes the tiger swam across the Bhola river during the night, and said the pugmarks confirm it went back towards the forest.
He warned that there is no guarantee it will not return. Wild animals can cross the river into the village at any time, he said, so announcements are being made to make sure neither people nor the tiger come to harm. People have been asked not to move about alone after dusk, and forest guards and VTRT members are patrolling round the clock.
Villages on the edge of the Sundarbans depend on the river, fishing and char land for their living. The Forest Department's advice is to stay calm but careful, and to report any sighting or fresh tracks to forest officials and the VTRT at once.
Based on a report by Prothom Alo's local correspondent.
Photo: Raju Kasambe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); a tiger swimming in the Sundarbans, representative picture
Source: Prothom Alo
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