By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 9: The state’s Forest department has not been able to confirm the reports of Royal Bengal tiger sighting in Mallangkna, Amagaon under the Mawshynrut block in West Khasi Hills district.
“We could not sight (the tiger). We had informed our DFO and the team (about the reports). In the past many years, there was no sighting of Royal Bengal tiger in that area as well as other places in Meghalaya,” a senior forest official said.
He said officials sent by the DFO spoke with the villagers but they could not confirm the tiger’s sighting.
“We are trying to find out also from (social) media posts. The village mentioned has not confirmed any sighting. There is no credible sign. We are checking,” he added.
To a query, the official said as Meghalaya is not a tiger state, there has never been a census of the animal here. In the Garo Hills, there was previously confusion between leopards and tigers but no cases of such confusion were reported in recent times, he said.
According to the Forest department, Meghalaya is a part of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot and identified as a key area for biodiversity conservation due to high species diversity and high level of endemism.
The rare and highly-endangered clouded leopard is the State animal. Other carnivores found here are leopard, leopard cat, jungle cat, golden cat, marbled cat, Dhole or Indian wild dog and Indian wolf.
Herbivores commonly found are elephant, gaur, sambar, serow and barking deer. Omnivores comprise jackals, common fox, sloth bear, Himalayan black bear, large Indian civets, yellow throated marten, mongoose, hog badger etc.
Among the primates, hoolock gibbon – the only ape found in India – and capped langur, both globally endangered species, are also found.
Other primates found here are slow loris, pig tailed macaque, stump tailed macaque and rhesus macaque.