Bhubaneswar: A black panther has been sighted for the first time in Odisha with cameras footage showing the animal at Garjanpahad Reserve Forest of Hemgir forest range in Sundargarh district.

A forest official said Odisha was the ninth state in the country where the black panther is found.

Odisha chief wildlife warden Sandeep Tripathi said though presence of the black panther was reported from the reserve forest 26 years ago, there had been no pictorial or scientific evidence to substantiate the claim.

He said: "Trap cameras were installed in the reserve forest area in December 2015 and the movement of the black panther was subsequently captured."

"This is the first ever footage of the animal in any forest of the state. It is as shy as any leopard and very difficult to detect. It is mostly found in densely forested areas of south India," said Tripathi.

Garjanpahad, where the first footage of black panther was captured, spreads across Hemgir and Gopalpur forest ranges covering a combined area of more than 10,000 hectares.

Tripathi said the other places where the black panther is present are Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve and Kabini Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, Achanakmar Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh), Satara in Maharashtra), Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, Dibrugarh, Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park in Assam, and Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh.

A forest official said Odisha was the only state to have black panther both in the wild and in captivity.

The black panther was first seen in 1993 at Similipal Tiger Reserve and later, a carcass was found the same year.

The first photographic evidence to support the presence of the big cat at Similipal was captured in 2007.

The Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar has three melanistic tigers in captivity at present.