From India’s largest mammal to one of the planet’s smallest cats. An animal imperilled by traffickers to a small carnivore ever ready to take on predators of any size.

These animals and more have over the past year been captured by trap cameras installed in a forest in Purulia, Bengal’s westernmost district that borders Jharkhand and is part of the Chhotanagpur Plateau.

An NGO installed the trap cameras in a pocket of the Kotshila forest in collaboration with the Bengal forest department. Three minutes of footage — a montage of images shot by multiple cameras that was shared with this newspaper — bears testimony to Purulia’s biodiversity.

It’s difficult to take one’s eyes off the footage, because the animals just keep coming.

It begins with an Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak), commonly called the “barking deer” because of the bark-like sound it makes to sound the alarm when it senses danger.

A small Indian civet (Viverricula indica) appears next, looking for food.

A full-grown leopard (Panthera pardus) follows, its eyes glowing in the dark and directed at the camera before it turns away.

Just one clip has been shot in daylight: it shows two leopards cuddling each other.

The next to enter the scene is a sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), moving slowly at first before suddenly picking up speed.

A honey badger (Mellivora capensis), probably clicked for the first time in Bengal, is a tenacious small carnivore with a reputation as one of the world’s most fearless animals, ready to fight back against much bigger predators.

An Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) makes a brief appearance.

Scaly, toothless and nocturnal, pangolins are among the world’s most trafficked mammals, hunted for their scales and meat. Most of this is smuggled into China, and the rest into Southeast Asia, for use in traditional medicines.

Next is a rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus), which is among the world’s smallest cats. It looks like a kitten, covered in a fawn coat with rusty brown spots on its back, and with an unmarked tail. This is the first formal documentation of the species in Bengal, foresters said.

An elephant appears at the end. Only its lower torso, a part of the trunk and the tusks are visible.

What’s next

The cameras were installed in January and retrieved in September. They had been placed as part of a pangolin conservation project by the Human and Environment Alliance League (Heal), supported by the Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust.

“We were elated when the images started pouring in. The cameras covered an area of just 8sqkm. The Kotshila forest is spread over 50sqkm; so this biodiversity was recorded in just a fraction of one forest,” said Vasudha Mishra, project coordinator for Heal.

Mishra said that cameras had also been placed in the forests of the Ayodhya Hills and Bandwan in Purulia.

“Now, the sightings of pangolins and all the animals are being documented. A report will be submitted to the forest department. We need to know how many of each documented species are in Purulia. We need to study their habitat and understand the threats to conservation,” Mishra said.

Trap cameras have in the past five years captured the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) and Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) multiple times in Purulia.

“This increasing biodiversity is very encouraging. We need a detailed and comprehensive census of these animals, followed by a conservation action plan focused on micro-habitats. I have requested these steps,” Anjan Guha, divisional forest officer, Purulia, said.

He said he had sent a formal communication to the forest department.

Researchers, foresters and wildlife activists said Purulia’s terrain makes it a thriving wildlife habitat.

“The forests of Bankura, Jhargram and West Midnapore are more fragmented. Purulia has hilly forests; the elevation makes their conversion into agricultural tracts more difficult,” a veteran forester said.

The discovery of this wide spectrum of species in Purulia is challenging the stereotype that the Sundarbans and north Bengal are the only parts of the state rich in wildlife, said Meghna Banerjee, Heal executive director.

“We are already in the middle of another project aimed at raising social tolerance for wild carnivores in the forest villages,” Banerjee said.

“It is supported by WWF-India’s Conservation Catalyst Programme. No meaningful conservation effort can exclude the local population. People living in the fringe villages in Purulia must be (taught to be) proud of the biodiversity.”