'Photo of tigers in Bengal's Buxa confirm presence of the big cat'

Kolkata: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) will project the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Bengal as having created a sustainable habitat for the big cats on the occasion of International Tiger Day.

The state Forest department has made a short video capturing the biodiversity and other important facets that proves that BTR has the potential to support tiger habitat and has handed it over to NTCA for wider circulation.

Interestingly, the detailed 2018 report released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Tuesday on "Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India" has zero tiger count in BTR as no camera trap had captured big cats.

"Census is done scientifically over a limited time period. The timing of the census at BTR was unable to record the presence of big cats at Buxa. But in the last two years at least two tigers whose photo was captured by the team of Wildlife Institute of India has confirmed the presence of the predator in Buxa," said a senior official of the state Forest department.

NTCA wants all tiger reserves across the country to have the condition of becoming a tiger habitat and is continuously in touch with the states in its tiger augmentation programme. This is no exception for Bengal also.

The state Forest department has already got necessary nod from all concerned authorities about introduction of six tigers at Buxa from Kaziranga in Assam. "The climatic condition and the flora and fauna of Buxa matches with that of the neighbouring state. So tigers from Assam is expected to be best suited for Buxa," the official added.

The state Forest department has introduced herbivores in phases from different wildlife sanctuaries across the country to boost the food chain of big cats in BTR,

The BTR in Alipurduar district in North Bengal is home to smaller cats such as leopards which occasionally surface in the tea gardens nearby. There are also common clouded leopards, jungle cats and fishing cats. The herbivore list includes elephants, Indian gaur, chital, sambars, barking deer and hog deer.

The tiger reserve has an area of about 757.9 sq km, of

which 390 sq km lies in the core area and 367 sq km in the buffer zone.