Dang Van Tam, head of the Forest Management Division in Luc Yen District in the northern province of Yen Bai, said that over the last few days many local residents have informed of seeing tigers or hearing their roars in Minh Tien and An Phu Communes.
Local residents sighted the tigers for the first time on April 19, and in the last few days they have been seen on many occasions in forested areas.
Tam said that three people from An Phu Commune had seen the tigers and soon after the entire Tan Lap Village in the commune heard tiger roars during the night.
Recently, two people said they had unmistakably seen two tigers, one young and one mature, while picking bamboo shoots in the forest at mid-day.
The local people are now anxious and do not dare enter the forest to pick bamboo shoots or work in their mountain fields. The appearance of tigers is a rare event because local people believe that there has been no tiger sighted in the area for the last 30 years.
The Forest Management Division in Luc Yen District said that they have reported this to the district People’s Committee and the Forest Management Department in Yen Bai Province.
Luc Yen District has established a team of police officials and forest rangers to visit villages in Minh Tien and An Phu Communes to apprise the local people of wildlife protection laws, particularly of endangered species. They will also guide residents on ways to protect themselves if they are suddenly confronted with a tiger.
