Bhubaneswar: Odisha appears to be emerging as a new destination for wandering big cats, with pugmarks of a possible tiger detected in Bargarh near the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border on Thursday, even as two other tigers were traced in the state in recent days.While a radio-collared tiger that entered Malkangiri’s Motu region from Andhra Pradesh’s Papikonda National Park on Monday has returned to the neighbouring state, pugmarks of another tiger were detected in Semiliguda, Koraput, on Wednesday. The latest discovery in Bargarh has further heightened alert among forest officials.Divisional forest officer Sai Kiran said satellite signals confirmed that the radio-collared tiger had returned to Andhra Pradesh but was still moving along the border. “Forest personnel are still tracking the radio-collared tiger through available monitoring systems and field-level surveillance,” he said.Wildlife officials suspect the Koraput tiger may have dispersed from the Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, one of India’s largest tiger habitats. However, its origin has not yet been confirmed.The latest pugmarks — one in Semiliguda and another in the Bargarh region — indicate growing big cat dispersal into Odisha from neighbouring landscapes, officials said. However, no tiger has been directly sighted by locals or forest department personnel so far.“Camera traps are being installed to get their images and rapid response teams are also working in the field,” said PCCF (wildlife) Prem Kumar Jha.On the Bargarh pugmarks, regional chief conservator of forests (Sambalpur circle) Samrat Gowda said they appeared to belong to a Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT), but further analysis was needed as leopard pugmarks can sometimes appear larger in wet soil and resemble those of a tiger.“We have had discussions with DFO, Hirakud wildlife division and DFO, Bargarh to remain alert. A rapid response team has been sent from Sambalpur and DFOs have been asked to form their own,” Gowda said.Conservation experts view the arrival of the big cats as an encouraging sign of habitat connectivity across eastern and central India.Former chief wildlife warden Susanta Nanda said Odisha currently has two wandering tigers, possibly attracted by its protected forests, adequate prey populations and relatively low competition from other males.However, he cautioned that transient males alone cannot establish sustainable tiger populations.“Wanderers cannot become breeding populations without females, secure habitats and, above all, functional wildlife corridors. The tiger dispersion in such frequency indicates the importance of maintaining habitat connectivity, which allows dispersing tigers to colonise new areas and strengthen long-term genetic diversity across landscapes,” Nanda said.