Coordinated tiger census in Sunderbans to start today

Kolkata: The exercise for the All India Coordinated Tiger Census under the South 24-Parganas forest division in Sunderbans will start from Tuesday. 161 pairs of camera grids will be placed at strategic locations in the three ranges – Matla, Raidighi and Ramganga under the South 24-Parganas forest division.

"The cameras will be lifted exactly a month after its installation. Following this, we will analyse the stripes of the tigers captured and will send all our findings to the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun. They will verify everything and accordingly the All India Tiger Census Report will be released that will include Sunderbans too," Milan Mondal, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), South 24-Parganas said.

The last time in the All India Coordinated Tiger Census held in 2019, the total number of big cats in the South 24-Parganas forest division was 28.

The camera trap exercise in the Sunderban Tiger Reserve (STR) area in Bengal has already been held and the cameras have been lifted recently. "The same cameras will be used here along with some of our own cameras, " Mondal added.

The cameras after installation will be checked after a period of 15 days to ensure whether they are functioning in a proper manner. The census of other herbivores will also be part of the exercise.

The census at Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in North Bengal has also began a few days back. The exercise assumes significance as in December last year after a gap of 23 years a picture of a tiger was taken on a trap camera in the forest of East Damanpur of BTR.

In the last census, the tiger count in Sunderbans in Bengal was found to have increased to 88 from 76 in the year 2014.