In a rare incident, a black panther was spotted Sunday in Maharashtra's Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve, forest officials said Monday.
A video of a grown black panther walking near a road has gone viral.
Confirming the incident, officials said the spotted place is a part of the Tadoba-Andhari forest area, located in Chandrapur district, around 680 kms from Mumbai.
Spotting of such black panthers is very rare as these cubs are born out of a gene mutation and they are not a separate species per se.
A similar panther was also spotted in Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, where camera traps laid by the forest department had captured the image of the wild cat wandering in the forest.
"The wild cat getting spotted in the forest is also an indication that their search of prey is increasing. With the movement of herbivorous animals, the cats also wander a lot," an official said.
He said there have been instances of such wild cats getting killed in road accidents, as they wander several kilometres in search of prey and have tried to cross the highways.
"A rare black panther was killed in Satara a few years ago by a speeding vehicle," the official added.
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