Tourists returning from the safari trip in Bannerghatta, about 25 km from the city, had a rare opportunity of sighting a wild tiger on Saturday evening. It is for the first time that a wild tiger has been sighted in Bannerghatta, officials said.
The tiger was spotted near Mulegundekere, near the Rescue Centre that houses lions and tigers at the Bannerghatta Biological Park around 3.45 p.m., official sources said.
Confirming the sighting, Executive Director Range Gowda said, “Visitors spotted the tiger during the evening safari. This is the first such spotting of a tiger close to the tiger rescue centre.”
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According to the master plan prepared by the Zoo Authority of Karnataka for Bannerghatta Biological Park, Mulegundekere, where the wild Tiger was found, falls in the elephant corridor.
However, a wildlife activist on condition anonymity said the spotting doesn’t imply that the national park is capable of rearing tigers. “The tiger was probably a transient from the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. There have been documented cases where tigers have moved hundreds of kilometres through human habitation without being noticed,” he said.
Incidentally, in October 2013, a tiger was spotted nearly 80 km from Bengaluru at the edge of Bannerghatta National Park and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, which is almost a contiguous patch of forest land.
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