Tiger Footprints in a Village: Half a Kilometre of Tracks in Sharankhola's Sonatala Sparks Fear
Fear has spread among residents of Sonatala village in Sharankhola upazila of Bagerhat after tiger footprints were spotted in the locality. On Monday morning (October 19), residents who saw the prints at several spots in the village informed officials of the Sundarbans' Sharankhola range and the Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT) engaged in protecting the Sundarbans.
On receiving the news, Md Shariful Islam, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) of the Sharankhola range, went to Sonatala with forest guards and VTRT members. Reaching the spot, they found tiger footprints spread across an area of about half a kilometre.
VTRT leader Md Zakaria Hossain said that in the morning, A Latif Hawlader, a VTRT member from Sonatala village adjoining the Sundarbans, spotted tiger footprints scattered in the bushes behind his house on the inhabited bank of the Bhola river and on the river char. He was the first to notice them.
The prints Latif Hawlader saw stretched from the river char into the bushes. Their spread suggests the tiger moved around inside the locality at some point during the night, rather than merely brushing past its edge.
Once the footprints were confirmed, panic spread among the villagers. VTRT members are warning residents through loudspeaker announcements, Zakaria Hossain said. Getting the warning to every household is now the first task.
To establish whether the tiger is hiding in some bush in the locality during the day or has returned to the Sundarbans, forest guards, Community Patrol Group members and VTRT members have stayed in the area and continued searching. The search is centred on the bushes and the riverbank.
ACF Shariful Islam said that despite searching all day, the tiger's location could not be confirmed. He believes the animal swam back across the Bhola river into the Sundarbans. For villages pressed against the Sundarbans, such crossings back and forth are not entirely unfamiliar events.
But with the tiger's whereabouts unconfirmed, there has been no let-up in caution. The Forest Department is making loudspeaker announcements asking the public to stay alert and not to go out of their homes at night, the forest official said.
Sonatala village sits right against the Sundarbans. Although the Bhola river lies between the forest and the settlement, tigers are strong swimmers, so the river is no great barrier to them. Tigers have entered localities in Sharankhola and other areas adjoining the Sundarbans in the past as well.
In such situations, those most at risk are people who go out at dawn and late at night, especially families whose livelihoods depend on the river and the forest edge. The warnings therefore stress limiting movement after dark.
Forest Department and VTRT members are remaining in the area. The search and the announcements will continue until it is certain whether the tiger has truly returned to the forest. Villagers will have to wait a little longer for their fear to subside.
