Photos: Odisha's Sundargarh jungle spots rare black panther in 26 years

BHUBANESWAR: The wildlife wing of Odisha's forest department has confirmed the presence of a black panther in Garjanpahad reserve forest of Hemgiri range in Sundargarh district. Though the forest department had claimed the presence of a black panther here 26 years ago, it did not have evidence to corroborate its claim then.

"It is the first-ever footage of a black panther in the state. It looks like a leopard, but is black in colour.It is a melanistic or genetic variant of the Indian leopard," said principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Sandip Tripathy. "The panther has been captured in a particular camera trap several times. We thoroughly verified those footages before coming to the conclusion that it is a black panther," Tripathy said.

Official sources said camera traps were installed in the 6,000-hectare Garjanpahad reserve forest since 2015 to study and analyse the footage of various animals.
Forest officials said Odisha is a state where the genetic variant of Royal Bengal Tiger has also been found. There are melanistic tigers in Similipal. "A melanistic tiger was first spotted in Similipal in 1993. It had black stripes. But the authorities got the first pictorial evidence of its presence in the reserve in 2007," said a wildlife official.
The Nandankanan zoo also has three melanistic tigers. On May 18, 2016, the state government citing its own census had reported that three melanistic tigers were captured by camera traps in Similipal. The authorities had then claimed that it was the only reserve in the world to have such tigers.
Following the 2016 tiger census conducted by the state government, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) sought photographic evidence of the tigers. "It is good for the habitat that we have melanistic panthers and tigers," Tripathy added.