Sunderbans tiger census kicks off with laying of trap cameras

Kolkata: The census of tigers in Sunderbans kicked off from Thursday with the exercise of laying trap cameras at different locations both within the Sunderban Tiger Reserve (STR) and the South 24-Parganas forest division.

This is the first time when the cameras are being placed simultaneously in both the divisions deviating from the practice of installing cameras in a phased manner to capture images of its apex predator.

The trap cameras will be in place for around 45 days covering three months November, December and January.

“All-weather night vision cameras will be placed approximately in 1,000 locations. 600 cameras will be laid in STR while the remaining will be installed in the South 24-Parganas Forest division that has three ranges under it,” said a senior official of the state Forest department.

As per plans, the trap cameras will be installed till November 26 and will be lifted during the period of January 6 to 12, 2025.

“The camera images will be analysed for an estimate of tiger and other animals to have a broad idea of whether the population has increased, decreased or remained stagnant so that necessary interventions for habitat management particularly of the big cats can be made. The count is for internal analysis. The authoritative figures are only released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA),” said Rajendra Jakhar, Field Director of STR.

The final report of the last national count, “Status of Tigers 2022”, released by NTCA on July 29 (International Tiger Day) 2023, had pegged the number of tigers in India and the Sunderbans at 3,682 and 101, respectively.

In 2020-21, the state-level exercise pegged the number of tigers at 96 in the Sunderbans, following which the state Forest department stopped formally releasing the results of the annual count.

The Sunderbans is spread across 10,000 sq km, a little above 4,000 sq km of which is in India.