IWN Daily Digest — Friday, 10 April 2026

A Tiger Steps Into the Frame — For the First Time

A Bengal tiger has been photographed inside Dibru Saikhowa National Park in Assam for the first time since the park was established in 1999 — a milestone that has quietly electrified the conservation community in north-east India.

The photographs, captured during a camera-trapping exercise using around 60 cameras, show the same individual on two separate occasions: 14 December 2025 and 1 January 2026. Since then, forest staff have discovered pug marks pointing to at least one more big cat in the 340 sq km core area — which means this may not be a lone wanderer, but the beginning of something more significant.

A park that kept its promise

Dibru Saikhowa sits in Assam’s Tinsukia district, cradled between the Brahmaputra and Lohit rivers. It has been a biosphere reserve since 1997 and a national park since 1999 — but tigers were known to have been present in the 1990s before disappearing from the records. Previous, smaller camera-trapping efforts came up empty. The breakthrough came only when the scale was dramatically expanded.

Divisional Forest Officer Bibison Tokbi noted that since the park’s inception, this was the first time a tiger had been caught on camera. The forest range officer for Dibru Saikhowa’s Guijan range added that the park clearly has the ecological conditions required for tigers, and the potential to emerge as a new site for tiger conservation.

Good news that demands action

Conservationists are cautiously encouraged — but warn the discovery carries urgency as much as joy. The region faces significant poaching pressure, and experts say confirmed tiger presence should immediately prompt tighter anti-poaching patrols and enhanced surveillance throughout the reserve.

It is a reminder that India’s forests are still capable of surprise. The cameras were watching. The tiger was there all along.

Sources: Mongabay India · The Cooldown

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