Bhabhua/Patna: A viral video claiming to show a tiger prowling along a roadside on Bihar’s Kaimur Hill caused a stir earlier this week, prompting swift action from the forest department. But after a rapid investigation, officials have dismissed the sighting as false.
The video, which surfaced on social media on Saturday, appeared to show a tiger wandering along the edge of the forest. It was reportedly filmed by a passerby and quickly went viral, stoking public excitement — and some fear — in a region where tigers were once common.
Responding to the buzz, the forest department dispatched a team to verify the claim. “A video of a tiger roaming in Kaimur Hill has gone viral. We sent a team to confirm it,” said District Forest Officer Manish Kumar. “Our investigation found that the video is not recent and was actually taken from Instagram. Someone circulated it claiming it to be from Kaimur.”
The incident reignited memories of a time when the Kaimur Hills were home to a thriving tiger population. However, rampant poaching and human encroachment drove the species to local extinction nearly five decades ago.
Signs of a possible return had emerged in recent years. In 2018 and 2019, tiger scat and footprints were discovered in the forest, later confirmed through forensic analysis in Dehradun. Then, during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, a male tiger was captured on a camera trap — the first visual evidence in decades. No tiger has been spotted there since.
Currently, Bihar’s only official tiger reserve is the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran. The state government, backed by in-principle approval from the Centre last year, is working to transform Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary into Bihar’s second tiger reserve. Plans are underway to relocate tigers from VTR to Kaimur in the coming months.
While the recent viral video turned out to be a hoax, it underscored both the region’s fascination with tigers — and the hopes of many that the majestic cats will one day truly return to Kaimur.
