A rare black tiger was sighted at Odisha's Similipal National Park.  A video clip shared by Indian Forest Service Officer Susanta Nanda shows the tiger making scratch marks on a tree to earmark his territory.

Tigers are symbol of sustainability of India’s forests…
Sharing an interesting clip of a rare melanistic tiger marking its territory on international Tigers day.
From a Tiger Reserve poised for recovery of an isolated source population with a very unique gene pool. Kudos🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/FiCIuO8Qj4

— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) July 29, 2022

Mr Nanda said the video clip was of a rare melanistic tiger marking its territory on International Tigers Day.

He said the black tigers have a unique gene pool and the tiger reserve is poised for a recovery in their numbers.

Another Indian Forest Service officer, Parveen Kasveen said,  "The rare tigers were first officially discovered in Similipal Tiger Reserve in 2007," he wrote.

The black or pseudo-melanistic tigers – with distinctive dark stripe pattern on a light background of white or golden – are rare and have only been camera-trapped in Similipal until now.

The black stripes of melanistic tigers occur due to mutation. They are Bengal tigers with a single base mutation in a particular gene. This mutation causes the tigers' distinctive black stripes to enlarge and spread into the orange background.