The lofty snow-capped mountain ranges of Sikkim have brought immense joy to wildlife enthusiasts, as a Royal Bengal Tiger has been sighted at an astonishing elevation of 3,640 meters (11,942 feet), marking the highest recorded altitude for a tiger in India.
This remarkable discovery occurred during a camera trap expedition conducted by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) team of scientists, researchers, and field assistants at the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in Sikkim. Prior to this groundbreaking record, the highest known location of a tiger’s presence was at Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, standing at an elevation of 3,630 meters in 2018. Notably, Bhutan, Sikkim’s neighboring country, holds the global record for tiger sightings at elevations exceeding 4,400 meters.
This isn’t the first instance of a tiger being observed at the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary. In 2019, the Sikkim State Forest Department captured a Royal Bengal Tiger on camera, wandering at an altitude of 9,583 feet at 6:23 pm and again at 7:00 pm on December 6.
Spanning 128 square kilometers, the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary stands as the largest wildlife sanctuary in Sikkim, situated in the East Sikkim district. Connected to the forests of Bhutan and the Neora Valley National Park in West Bengal, this sanctuary is a habitat for various charismatic species, including the Red Panda, Snow Leopard, Himalayan Muskdeer, Himalayan Goral, Himalayan Black Bear, and many more.
