For the first time, a tiger has been sighted at a height of around 3,400 meters.
Tigers, which are normally found in the plains, was for the first time sighted at Uttarakhand's Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary.
"The feline was captured recently by a camera trap at the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary which is home to leopards and snow leopards only," informed Kedarnath Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Amit Kanwar.
It may be mentioned here that in 2016 too, a camera trap captured a feline in the area but the picture quality was not very good.
"This time, the picture is very clear," said Kanwar, adding, "We are still not clear whether the tiger sighted is a male or a female. It is also not clear whether the tiger is a local or migrated to the sanctuary from the plains."
"The Forest Department would take the help of experts from the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to assess the significance of a tiger at such a height and also carry out research work," he added.
"In the past, a tiger had been found at a height of 3,200 meters in Pithoragarh district," Kanwar elucidated further.