It’s official now. Sunderbans, one of the last surviving natural tiger habitats in the world, has a minimum of 103 tigers.
And what’s more, each swamp tiger is believed to be maintaining a territory of over 20 square kilometres on this critical habitat, a fact which was challenged several times.
It was earlier reported that the mangroves has a minimum 77 tigers, much more than the official estimates given by the Centre in 2011. However, the figure for the National Park West range comprising forests of Netidhopani and Choto Hardi could not be compiled by the foresters then.
The tiger density, according to the new finding, has also managed to beat the official estimates.
Meanwhile, foresters are happy with the number of tigers in tourism zone Sajnekhali — 19.
They are also planning to utilize small pockets in the core area for tourism. Head of forest force S B Mondal said that tourism will have to be restricted since the apex court has directed utilization of up to 15% area inside core forests for tourism.
While the camera-trap exercise for South 24-Parganas forest division, Sajnekhali, National Park East and Basirhat was conducted by WWF-India, officials of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) conducted the study in National Park West.
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