Lalgarh/Calcutta: Two traps have been laid in the forests near Lalgarh, where a tiger was photographed on Friday.

The traps - eight feet long, four feet wide and six feet high - have been sent from the Jharkhali tiger rescue centre in the Sunderbans, wildlife officials said.

Live baits have been placed in the traps set up at strategic locations inside the Melkhedia forest by a team of forest officials and vets from the Sunderbans. The traps are camouflaged with leaves and twigs.

"Friday's sighting is the first in the history of Jhargram district in recent memory. Wildlife personnel here are not equipped to deal with tiger traps. So, we sent a team from Jharkhali," a forest official said.

A fresh footage of the tiger emerged on Saturday morning, said Ravi Kant Sinha, the chief wildlife warden of the state. The cameras that captured the tiger's images on Friday and Saturday are different.

The full-grown male was first clicked inside the Melkhedia forest - a 50sqkm patch in Jhargram district, some 180km from Calcutta - at 4.28am on Friday and again at the same spot at 6.15am.

A search for the tiger was triggered by attacks on villager's livestock and the spotting of pug marks in the forest. Several pairs of cameras were set up in the forest after wildlife officials confirmed them as tiger pugs.

A team of 12 forest officials, armed with tranquilliser guns, has been deputed to capture the tiger.

The forest department hopes the tiger will be captured soon but the officials are prepared for a long wait. Two more traps have been kept on standby. If the tiger is not captured within four-five days, more traps will be laid.

"If any other footage emerges in another part of the jungle, the trap will be moved there," the forest official said.

Lalgarh, Madhupur and other villages in the vicinity of the jungle are in the grip of fear. Wildlife officials and policemen are working together to cordon off the forest. Security pickets, comprising forest guards and policemen, have been posted at all seven entry points to the forest to keep villagers away.

"Apart from the risk to human life, the presence of human beings in the forest could also scare the tiger into hiding or prompt it to seek an escape route," said Rabindranath Saha, the divisional forest officer of Midnapore range.

Forest officials suspect the tiger may have strayed from Odisha or Jharkhand.

Once captured, he will be taken to a hospital for a comprehensive check-up.

"We will look for injuries and ailments," said the forest official in Calcutta. If fit, the tiger will be released into the wild again.