Kolkata, Nov 25 : After seven decades, a musk deer was spotted on a secret camera installed by the forest department in the Neora Valley National Park in Kalimpong district of West Bengal.

Being it an extremely rare species, forest department officials and workers are excited as the musk deer was again captured on camera in West Bengal mountains. It was last seen in West Bengal way back in 1955.

Bhaskar J. V., chief conservator of forests (wildlife) for north Bengal said, "A two-year survey conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India found presence of musk deer in the forests of Neora Valley. Following the survey, around 50 trap cameras were installed in different places in the hills, where images of the endangered musk deer surfaced."

However, forest officials said that more research is needed on this issue. Officials also said that more information is being awaited, especially on what species of deer it is and how many are still there.

According to the forest department, the musk deer was last seen in Darjeeling's Singalila National Park in 1955.

As per the forest department, the Wildlife Institute of India conducted a survey for the Red Panda census in 2023-2024 in the forests of the Neora Valley National Park, which is 3,112 meters above sea level. For that work, the image of the musk deer was captured on the trail camera installed on December 17, 2024. After the survey, the forest officials were practically surprised when they checked the footage of the camera. It was seen that there is evidence of the presence of musk deer in the trail camera in the Neora Valley forest.

Musk deer is classified as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) Red List.

Apart from the Neora Valley of Darjeeling, musk deer can be found in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Uttarakhand in the country.

/IANS