The Watery World of Tigers

FYI -- Sundarbans Tiger Reserve is situated in the Eastern Indian State of West Bengal.

In the Sundarbans, Tigers are everywhere.

Camouflaged in the Mangrove Forest and living in a unique water dominated habitat  with a minimal prey base, the Sundarbans Royal Bengal Tiger is a Mysterious Animal.

The Question that has been nagging Forest Officials and Conservationists for some time, is How Can Tigers be counted in the Sundarbans ??

Till recently, It was an impossible exercise to get an estimate of the Tiger Population using existing methods.

Enter The Method of Camera Traps.

In 2014, Camera Traps began to give positive results.

The Photographs, revealed 87 Unique Individual Adult Tigers in this Mangrove Forest Ecosystem.

The Results of the Camera Trap Exercise pointed to the existence of 24 Tigers in South 24 Parganas Forest Division which is outside the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve.

In this region, which is extremely close to Human Beings -- 10 New Adult Tigers were photographed.

Images of 16 Adult Tigers were captured in the National Park East Range, 19 in West Range, and 15 each in Basirhat Range and Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary.

In each of the Tiger Zones, there was a minimal increase of 5 Adult Tigers.

The Sundarbans Tiger's Main Prey are Wild Pigs. A Number of Tiger Scats were examined and found to contain Pig Hair. It is obvious that the Tigers relish Pig Meat to a large extent.

The Tigers also eat Rhesus Macaque Monkeys, Crabs, Fish, and a limited number of Swamp Deer that are found in the water logged Mangrove Forests.

This Region is the only forest in India where No Cattle or other easy prey is available for these Tigers making them swim across Water Channels for a meal.

To get an estimate of the Tiger's Prey even the Fish in the Region would have to be accounted for.

If Tigers here regularly Prey on Fish, then it would place these Tigers on top of the Terrestrial and Aquatic Food Chain.

Credits : Counting The Tigers That Roam a Water World
               By Shiv Sahay Singh
               The Hindu Newspaper
               November 4, 2017 

Tigers On The Comeback Trail

Tigers will roar again at Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal. Located in Alipurduar district, the reserve, parts of which border Bhutan, has been identified for the tiger augmentation programme by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

How big is it?

Notified as a tiger reserve in 1983, Buxa consists of moist, deciduous and evergreen forests. It stretches to a length of 50 km from west to east and 35 km from north to south.

Over the past few years, the number of tigers in the Buxa reserve has been hotly debated by wildlife enthusiasts. While Forest Department officials claimed there were tigers in the reserve, almost no sighting of the big cats raised questions about their presence. The survey of tigers in 2011 based on DNA analyses of scat put the number of tigers at 20.

Where will tigers come from? 

The Sunderbans in south Bengal is home to about 100 tigers. Experts have consciously decided not to augment tigers in the Buxa reserve from the Sunderbans, a completely different mangrove ecosystem.

Instead, tigers from the forest reserves of Assam, which have a similar flora and fauna, will be introduced in Buxa. The reserve is located very close to Assam’s Manas Tiger Reserve, and some experts believe that animals from Manas often come to Buxa using Bhutan as a corridor.

What are the challenges?

The initial plan is to introduce six tigers at Buxa, but this poses a challenge to forest officials as there is human habitation in the area.

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. There are about 38 villages in Buxa and 49 villages in the fringe area.

A number of tea gardens are located on the periphery of the reserve.

The people residing in the villages mainly work at the tea plantations. In an attempt to mitigate the human versus animal conflict, the Forest Department has started awareness programmes in the villages before introducing the tigers.

Besides the population pressure, another major challenge at Buxa is the broad gauge rail line passing through the reserve, connecting Siliguri and Alipurduar. Over the past few years, a number of elephants and other animals have died, having been run over by trains.

The Buxa reserve 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.

Credits : Where Tigers Are Making A Comeback 

               By Shiv Sahay Singh 

             The Hindu Newspaper 

             September 2, 2017