Rajahmundry: In a surprising discovery, four Royal Bengal Tigers have been spotted at the Papikonda national park located in the eastern ghats. These sightings do not form part of the tiger census, which was released on Tuesday.

The presence of Royal Bengal tigers in the park was unknown until two of them were photographed by Cuddeback scouting cameras which were recently installed in the park. Both were fully grown tigers.

Officials said villagers had told them of the presence of two more tigers; their pug marks were found in the newly merged forest areas of erstwhile Khammam district in the state.

Several leopards, king cobra, golden gecko and Indian gaur, which are in Schedule-1 of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, were spotted in good numbers in the national park, officials said.

Rampachodavaram forest range officer (wildlife) P.B.N. Kumar said, “It is a welcome sign that these wild animals are getting adequate food and water, resulting in the growth of their population.”

The park has 47 villages with nearly 20,000 residents. Of these, 21 villages are vulnerable to submergence by the Polavaram project and three have been de-populated.