Black Panther Captured in Camera Trap in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: A picture of a black panther or melanistic leopard was captured in the trap camera during the ongoing tiger census in Odisha.  Odisha Principal Chief Conservators of Forests (PCCF) Susanta Nanda shared the pictures of the big cat on his X handle on Wednesday. But he did not name the forest where the rare animal was spotted.

“Ongoing camera trap tiger census in Odisha is throwing up some exciting & unexpected presence of wild fauna in our state,” stated the post of the PCCF.

A few days back a Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) was spotted in bordering areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. It is suspected that this big cat has travelled over 750 km from Maharashtra to reach the Gajapati district. This tiger was camera-trapped at Brahmapuri forest division under Maharashtra’s Chandrapur in 2021.