Villagers panic after tiger seen in fish enclosure at Bagerhat’s Sharankhola 

Residents of Khejurbaria village, in Sharankhola upazila of Bagerhat, are panicked after a Royal Bengal Tiger was seen inside a fish enclosure last night.

The village is about two kilometres away from the Sundarbans with Bhola river and Dhansagar village in between, reports our Bagerhat correspondent.

Shahin Khan, owner of the fish enclosure, saw the tiger around 9:15pm on Thursday (May 5).

''I went to my fish enclosure around 9:15pm with my father. There I saw something lying inside, but we could not understand what it was from a distance. Later I went a little closer and saw the tiger. We were very scared," Shahin said.

When people from the village came out with light, the tiger had left by then, he added.

Abul Hossain Khan, Shahin Khan's father and local UP member, said, "Earlier, tigers came to Dhansagar village at different times, but it is after a long time that a tiger came to our village. The locals were scared but no action was taken to stop or kill the tiger. We informed the concerned forest department officials.''

Meanwhile, forest officials and forest rangers went to the village this morning to find out the tiger's whereabouts and were searching gardens and bushes in the area.

"The spot where the tiger was supposedly seen was very dry. As a result, no footprints were found," said Abdus Sabur, Dhansagar station officer of Sundarbans East Forest Department.

Forest rangers and VTRT members are in the area. All preparations have been made to let the tiger return to forest quickly if it is seen again, he added.