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| Wednesday, 30 July 2003 |
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India and Bangladesh plan joint census of tigers CALCUTTA, Tuesday (AFP) Wildlife officials in India and Bangladesh plan to conduct a joint census of tigers in the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest that sprawls across their common borders, an official said Tuesday. The project is now awaiting the final approval of the governments of the two neighbouring states. The mangroves, covering an area of about 10,000 square kilometers (4,000 square miles) in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and southern Bangladesh, is the natural habitat of man-eating Royal Bengal tigers. Atanu Kumar Raha, chief conservator of wildlife in West Bengal, told AFP that a census in 2002 showed that there were 271 tigers in the Indian Sunderbans. Bangladesh, which unlike India does not carry out a regular census of tigers, estimates it has about 300 tigers in its section of the Sunderbans. "An exact headcount of tigers is not possible without a joint census as the unmanned and open international border is not at all a barrier to the big cats to roam freely," Raha said. He added that man-eating tigers annually kill at least 50 people, mainly honey-collectors, in the swampy forests which are criss-crossed with creeks and tidal rivers. Raha, who is also director of the Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve, said that wildlife authorities in India and Bangladesh had been holding talks on carrying out a joint census to determine the total number of tigers in the Sunderbans. "This will help save the endangered species from the poachers gun and allow their population to grow naturally." The project would be funded by the United Nations Development Programme. Data discovered during the survey would enable officials to take appropriate steps to save the Royal Bengal tigers, Raha said. He said Bangladeshi wildlife authorities had visited Calcutta in May to discuss the project with West Bengal forest minister Jogesh Burman. Wildlife authorities in West Bengal conduct a census of tigers by collecting the pug-marks of the big cats on the swampy land of the Sunderbans and then analysing them through computers. UNESCO declared the Sunderbans' unique biosphere a World Natural Heritage Site in 1985. |
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