An earlier camera trap picture of a pair of cubs at the Valmiki Tiger Reserve. Telegraph picture

Not one, not two, Valmiki Tiger Reserve has six good news this festive season.

The number of big cats at Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) is all set to rise, as officials claimed to have sighted at least six cubs in different areas of the reserve.

The movement of tigers has been spotted in different ranges of the reserve, including Madanpur, Ganauli and Manguraha. A confirmation on the cubs would, however, come only during the upcoming tiger census at the reserve.

“The movement of cubs with their mothers initially came to the light through their pug marks spotted by forest rangers and other employees on patrolling. Based on the initial information, senior officials at the reserve monitored the area suspected for their movement and successfully sighted at least six newborn cubs,” said Nand Kishore, VTR’s division-II divisional forest officer.

On being asked about the possibility of the cubs coming from Chitwan National Park in Nepal, Kishore said: “According to the normal tiger behaviour, the mother does not go very far from the breeding place at least for a month or two after giving birth to them. They are newborn and it is unlikely that the mother would have travelled with them from Chitwan, which is far from where they have been sighted in VTR.”

According to the annual census conducted by the environment and forest department in 2013, the number of big cats in the reserve was assessed at 22, which was eight in 2010.

Officials at VTR said the increase in the number of tigers has been because of development of favourable habitat for them inside the reserve.

“As a result of better management at the reserve, tigers now find improved habitat here in comparison with the neighbouring Chitwan. Earlier, tigers used to migrate from the VTR to Chitwan but because of development of grassland and herbivores at our reserve over the past couple of years, the migration trend seems to be getting changed vice-versa,” said an official of the forest department.

Kishore said: “We are going to commence the second annual tiger census within a month during which tiger-counting would be done using camera-trap method. The cubs would be photographed during the census, which would pave way for their final documentation in our records.”